SΔϕ-27 — Low-Cost Convergence and Restoration Cost Explosion: Exception Compression as a Minimal Fixation Mechanism (v1.0)
Sofience
Abstract
This paper extends SΔϕ-26 by distinguishing between two different cost layers: operational cost and restoration cost. Operational cost refers to the expense of continuing along an already selected path, while restoration cost refers to the expense of abandoning or revising that path after fixation has occurred. The central claim is that low-cost convergence in operation does not contradict irreversibility; rather, it is one of its primary generators. As exception frequency decreases, operational repetition becomes cheaper, path dependence intensifies, and the restoration cost of alternatives rises. Irreversibility is thus marked not only by the impossibility of return, but by the repeated success of low-cost continuation. This paper proposes exception compression as the minimal practical mechanism through which path fixation emerges. In this sense, SΔϕ-27 functions as the generative continuation of SΔϕ-26: if SΔϕ-26 defined irreversibility through restoration cost explosion, SΔϕ-27 explains how that explosion is produced through repeated low-cost operation. Series: SΔϕ (Sofience–Δϕ Formalism) Series number: 27 Version: v1.0 Series title: SΔϕ — Sofience–Δϕ Formalism Series number: 27 Document title: Low-Cost Convergence and Restoration Cost Explosion Position in series: follows SΔϕ-26 and develops the operational mechanism by which repeated low-cost continuation generates restoration cost explosion.