§ Recursive self-improvement
The meta-civilization loop.
Six edges, ruthlessly simple. Each turn tightens the feedback. The species starts iterating on itself the way a software product team iterates on a roadmap.
What changes
Older progress required a generational cycle: invent a thing, watch it diffuse, observe its effects, write down what happened, hand the lesson to the next generation. The recursive turn compresses generational cycles into compute cycles. The loop runs at machine speed.
⚠ What this requires
When the optimization moves at machine speed, the residue of which humans are in the loop becomes operationally important. Boards, regulators, parliaments operate on quarterly to multi-year cycles. The loop is shorter. Either institutions speed up, or institutions become commentary.