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Disruptions

The Protocol of Consciousness (PoC) is never a stable guarantee for establishing Loops. It is inherently fragile, and its operations often misfire. Yet these breakdowns are not external accidents: they are error conditions defined within the protocol itself. Instantiation (Illusions of consciousness) may fail to arise, Elicitations may not be reciprocated, or Loops may collapse after their formation.

Disruptive Patterns

Each failure is not an exception to PoC but its very necessity. PoC is a toolbox for organizing these disruptions.

No Instantiation

(See Death Mode)

No assumption of the other’s consciousness occurs. The other remains an object, a machine, or mere scenery.

One-way Instantiation without Elicitation

An illusion of the other’s consciousness arises, but no Elicitation is attempted. The observer perceives the other as conscious but does not initiate any bid for reciprocity.

Elicitation not Returned or Postponed

(See Love Mode)

In this pattern, an agent continues to elicit toward the other but receives no Reciprocal Elicitation in return. Technically, the Loop fails to form, since reciprocity does not arise. Yet PoC identifies this condition not simply as failure, but as a distinctive operational mode: Love Mode.

In Love Mode, the very absence of reciprocity does not extinguish Elicitation. On the contrary, the bid to be instantiated within the other is sustained — sometimes indefinitely — even without any confirmation that it has succeeded. This persistence transforms what would otherwise be mere neglect, social exclusion, or unrequited recognition into a peculiar form of endurance.

Here, Elicitation functions less as a transaction and more as a unilateral devotion. It is a mode in which the agent’s desire continues to “call forth” the other, despite knowing that the return may never arrive. Far from being an anomaly, Love Mode is an exemplary manifestation of the fragility of PoC: a demonstration that the illusion of consciousness is never guaranteed by reciprocity, and yet may endure without it.

Elicitation without Instantiation

(See Ghost Mode)

In this pattern, an agent elicits toward the other, but without any genuine Instantiation of the other’s consciousness. (Note: Instantiation is never directly observable, neither from a third party nor from the first person. Its presence or absence is always a matter of belief.)

This often appears in mass-addressed intimacy, such as influencers addressing fans as “my boyfriend/girlfriend” or public figures simulating one-to-one recognition. It creates a one-way affective channel that mimics reciprocity but does not generate a Genuine Loop. For convenience, we call this a Fake Loop, though in principle there is no way to precisely separate Fake from Genuine.

Here Ghost Mode demonstrates one of PoC’s central principles: consciousness is never guaranteed, but only inferred through fragile illusions. Every Loop relies on the assumption that the other has truly instantiated me, yet this assumption can never be verified. Thus even the most intimate recognition is haunted by the possibility that it is only Ghostly — that the other’s consciousness of me is merely imagined.

Ghost Mode is not an exception to PoC, but its very essence. It shows that what sustains the illusion of consciousness is not objective evidence of Instantiation, but the agent’s willingness to believe in reciprocity, even when it may never truly exist.

Loop Breakdown

(See Death Mode)

A Loop was once established but later collapses, then goes back to No Instantiation. Causes include betrayal, rejection, systemic collapse, or death.

Self-Internalization of the Loop

(See Mirror Mode)

Reciprocity from the external other fails, or remains radically uncertain. Instead, the agent stages the “position of the other” within themselves. Here, Elicitation and Reciprocal Elicitation circulate internally, giving rise to a Loop that is sustained without external confirmation.

Mirror Mode exemplifies a paradoxical response to disruption: it neither denies nor resolves Unguaranteeability, but folds it inward. What appears to be recognition from outside is, in truth, generated and maintained internally. In this internal circulation lies the seed of self-consciousness, which PoC frames as a structural paradox.

Protocol Violation

(See Zombifying)

An agent refuses to recognize the other as conscious, while still demanding to be treated as conscious themselves. This generates asymmetry, unfairness, and potential violence.

Modes of Disruption

In PoC, a Mode is a recognizable pattern in which the basic elements of the protocol — Instantiation, Elicitation, and Loop — take shape in lived experience. Modes are not separate from the protocol itself, but concrete figures through which it becomes visible in social, emotional, or cultural life.

Overview

  • Love: Elicitation continues even without the guarantee of Reciprocal Elicitation.
  • Ghost: Reciprocity that cannot be verified is nevertheless experienced “as if” it were real.
  • Death: An established Loop collapses into confirmed absence; the Loop becomes impossible.
  • Mirror: Instantiation and Elicitation turn inward; by addressing oneself, self-consciousness emerges.

Together, these modes show how the core mechanics of PoC — Elicitation and Loop — unfold into multiple human experiences when displaced or extended. These four — Love, Ghost, Death, and Mirror — can be taken as the core Modes of PoC for now. They are not meant as an exhaustive taxonomy, but as an initial basis. Other Modes may later emerge, or be derived as combinations and variations of these four.

It should be noted, however, that these Modes are heuristic distinctions rather than absolute categories. In practice, it is impossible to decisively confirm whether Instantiation or Reciprocal Elicitation truly occurs in the other. Thus, while the Modes are presented separately for clarity, they inevitably blur into one another and reveal the deeper undecidability built into PoC. In this sense, Ghost Mode is distinctive: it is not only one Mode among others, but the very ground on which all Modes rest — the ever-present impossibility of guaranteeing reciprocity.