{
  "handle": "CryptographicChange",
  "ref": "CryptographicChange#43e6",
  "stub": "43e6",
  "semaId": "sema:CryptographicChange#mh:SHA-256:43e6ed866013935d7ec4f3e89f812582f1b3a8c8b732bd5c495d6d48ba666ced",
  "layer": "Mind",
  "category": "Strategy",
  "gloss": "Spend the capacity a prediction frees on hidden extra work instead of returning it as savings",
  "mechanism": "A reliable prediction about inputs lets a process skip states or inputs, for example by not processing a B that always follows an A. The freed capacity can be used in two ways. Quasi-cryptographic change returns it as a measurable efficiency saving to whoever funds the process. Cryptographic change spends it on additional functions inside the gaps, which leave the original input-output behaviour and budget unchanged and so are invisible to output metrics, as in {{parasitic_search}} or attention freeing a mind to wander. Hidden functions need a varied host process to feed on, as a code book needs many different words.",
  "invariants": [
    "The original function's inputs and outputs are unchanged by either kind of change",
    "Added hidden work must cost no more than the processing it replaced"
  ],
  "failureModes": [
    "Over-streamlining and monotonous roles that leave no variety for added functions",
    "Never attending to the skipped input, so a failed prediction goes undetected",
    "Output metrics that cannot see value created inside the gaps"
  ],
  "ring": 2,
  "tier": 3,
  "aliases": {
    "parasitic_search": "ParasiticSearch"
  },
  "buildsOn": [
    {
      "handle": "ParasiticSearch",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "parasitic_search",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/ParasiticSearch/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/ParasiticSearch.json"
    }
  ],
  "usedBy": [],
  "sources": {
    "research": [],
    "works": [
      {
        "kind": "book",
        "label": "On the Origin of Risk",
        "note": "(Timlett 2025), Technical appendix III (efficiency, prediction and cryptographic change)",
        "url": "/research/on_the_origin_of_risk/"
      }
    ],
    "homePage": false
  },
  "url": "/knowledge-graph/CryptographicChange/",
  "graphUrl": "/knowledge-graph#CryptographicChange",
  "directory": "/knowledge-graph/patterns.json"
}