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Cor - Current State (v2)
Snapshot
What Cor is
A mechanism-level specification of the human organism: what it
is
before what it prefers
Derivation: frame -> premises -> properties -> consequences -> convergences -> mechanisms
Built to ground AI alignment, clinical practice, environment design, policy
Canonical counts (live from the snapshot)
18 Foundations
15 Convergences
15 Mechanisms
81 Researchers
148 Works / corpus
635 Extractions
959 Mechanism-evidence links
9 Empirical demonstrations
8 Applications
23 Research domains
1 Bridge theses
16 Open questions
32 EEA baseline parameters (The Gap)
Foundations (18)
L0 - Frame (2)
OF1 - Fitness Interface
Access to the world is mediated by evolved fitness interfaces, not guaranteed veridicality.
evidence: 8
OF2 - Signal-Default Epistemology
Motivational-emotional outputs are treated as prima facie informative about the organism's regulated conditions, by default.
evidence: 18
L1 - Premises (3)
P2 - Domain-Sensitive Interacting Adaptations
The organism contains evolved, domain-sensitive, interacting functional adaptations.
evidence: 197
P3 - Systematic Mismatch
Modern environments often push these adaptations outside their expected or regulatable operating ranges.
evidence: 146
P1 - Inclusive Fitness
Inclusive fitness - survival and reproduction - is the loss function of selection, not of the organism's runtime computation.
evidence: 56
L2 - Properties (10)
DA2 - Socially Scaffolded Regulation
Human regulation is constitutively socially scaffolded;
evidence: 132
DA3 - Recurrent Coupling and Cascading
Systems are recurrently coupled;
evidence: 43
DA4 - Proxy Hijacking via Open Loops
Proxy cues can activate systems without meeting the conditions that normally regulate or terminate them.
evidence: 35
DA5 - Defensive Over-Activation Bias
Defensive systems err toward over-activation under asymmetric error costs.
evidence: 35
DA6 - Competing Motivational Programs
The architecture contains partially competing motivational programs and tradeoff structures.
evidence: 20
DA7 - Developmental Calibration
The architecture calibrates to developmental and ongoing environmental input within evolved ranges.
evidence: 63
DA8 - Phylogenetic Priority
Motivational programs have phylogenetically determined priority relations.
evidence: 80
DA1 - Defensive Signals Under Mismatch
Many aversive outputs are intelligible defensive signals under mismatch, not evidence of defective design.
evidence: 88
DA9 - Non-Substitutability of Mechanism Resolution
Mechanism resolution conditions are not fully interchangeable.
evidence: 2
DA10 - Heritable Parameter Variation
Architecture parameters (drive gains, thresholds, calibration setpoints) vary between individuals within heritable ranges.
evidence: 5
L3 - Consequences (3)
DC1 - Allostatic Load Accumulation
Chronic unresolved activation accumulates as allostatic load.
evidence: 61
DC2 - Market Proxy Exploitation
Markets can industrialize proxy exploitation of unmet regulatory needs.
evidence: 22
DC3 - Environment as Primary Intervention Layer
Cortical override of subcortical activation is metabolically expensive, and chronic defensive activation downregulates the cortical override machinery itself.
evidence: 2
Convergences (15)
Forcing a mechanism (5)
C6 - Wanting-Liking Dissociation as Proxy Hijack
->
M2
grade: forced
independent literatures
Berridge & Robinson incentive salience / mesolimbic dopamine
Tinbergen ethology and supernormal stimuli
Panksepp SEEKING circuit affective neuroscience
C10 - Threat-Detection via Ancient Subcortical Circuits
->
M1
grade: forced
independent literatures
Panksepp FEAR/RAGE circuit neuroanatomy
Öhman & Mineka fear module visual attention / backward masking
Nesse evolutionary psychiatry of panic and anxiety
C11 - Reciprocity, Norm Enforcement, and Coalition Architecture
->
M11
grade: strongly_supported
independent literatures
Fehr & Gächter experimental economics of cooperation
Boehm political anthropology of egalitarianism
Tomasello comparative cognition and shared intentionality
C14 - Reproductive Motivation as Distinct Architecture
->
M14
grade: forced
independent literatures
Panksepp LUST circuit affective neuroscience
Buss sexual strategies theory
Haselton & Buss error management in cross-sex mind reading
C5 - Socially Scaffolded Regulation via Attachment
->
M3
grade: forced
independent literatures
Coan social baseline theory affective neuroscience
Bowlby attachment theory
Hrdy cooperative-breeding primatology
Dunbar social brain hypothesis
Holt-Lunstad social-relationships epidemiology
Cross-cutting support (10)
C2 - Domain-Sensitive Organism Architecture
grade: forced
independent literatures
Tooby & Cosmides evolutionary psychology design principle
Panksepp affective neuroscience seven-systems taxonomy
Bowlby attachment theory
C3 - Systematic EEA-Modern Environment Mismatch
grade: forced
independent literatures
Eaton & Konner evolutionary medicine / discordance hypothesis
Li van Vugt Colarelli mismatch hypothesis review
Boyd & Richerson gene-culture coevolution
Henrich WEIRD cross-cultural psychology
C4 - Phylogenetic Conservation of Subcortical Affective Systems
grade: forced
independent literatures
Panksepp affective neuroscience cross-species
Bowlby attachment cross-mammalian
Hrdy primatology and cooperative breeding
C7 - Adverse Experience Cascading Dose-Response
grade: forced
independent literatures
Felitti ACE Study clinical epidemiology
McEwen allostatic load neuroendocrinology
Panksepp cross-system inhibition affective neuroscience
C8 - Error Management Asymmetry in Defensive Systems
grade: forced
independent literatures
Nesse smoke detector principle evolutionary psychiatry
Haselton & Buss Error Management Theory
Öhman & Mineka fear module cognitive neuroscience
C9 - Allostatic Load Accumulation
grade: forced
independent literatures
McEwen allostasis and allostatic load neuroendocrinology
Felitti ACE clinical epidemiology
Sapolsky primate stress physiology
C1 - Inclusive Fitness as Loss Function
grade: forced
independent literatures
Darwin natural selection theory
Hamilton inclusive fitness formalism
Fehr & Gächter experimental economics of altruistic punishment
C12 - Developmental Calibration within Evolved Ranges
grade: forced
independent literatures
Bowlby attachment developmental calibration
McEwen HPA-axis neuroendocrinology
Felitti ACE Study clinical developmental epidemiology
C13 - Aversive Outputs as Intelligible Defensive Signals
grade: forced
independent literatures
Nesse evolutionary psychiatry of defensive signals
Panksepp affective neuroscience of aversive systems
Fehr & Gächter experimental economics of moralistic outrage
C15 - Heritable Individual Variation in Behavioral Traits
grade: forced
independent literatures
Polderman twin-study meta-analysis (behavior genetics)
Plomin adoption and family designs (behavior genetics)
Yang GCTA molecular SNP-heritability (statistical genetics)
Turkheimer three laws (framing)
Mechanisms (15)
Tier 1 - strongest evidence (10)
M14 - Reproductive Motivation
evidence: 62 - grade: established
M3 - Social Bonding
evidence: 207 - grade: established
M5 - Status Monitoring
evidence: 94 - grade: established
M1 - Threat Management
evidence: 114 - grade: established
M7 - Circadian Regulation
evidence: 33 - grade: established
M4 - Social Calibration / Play
evidence: 55 - grade: established
M8 - Immune Regulation
evidence: 38 - grade: established
M6 - Controllability / Agency
evidence: 38 - grade: established
M2 - Pursuit / Exploration
evidence: 69 - grade: established
M9 - Care / Alloparenting
evidence: 68 - grade: established
Tier 2 - strongly supported (4)
M11 - Cooperation / Alliance
evidence: 83 - grade: strongly_supported
M10 - Movement / Regulatory
evidence: 29 - grade: strongly_supported
M13 - Energy Regulation
evidence: 35 - grade: strongly_supported
M12 - Contamination Avoidance
evidence: 12 - grade: strongly_supported
Tier 3 - regulatory input (1)
R1 - Touch
evidence: 22 - grade: moderate
The Gap (32)
Each mechanism's matched environment vs the modern default
Contested measured numbers held
next to
the spec, not inside it; grades foregrounded; figures illustrative, not constants
9 carry a contested flag
Social structure (9)
EEA-SOC-01 - Social network layers (~5/15/50/150)
grade: replicated - contested - serves
M11
,
M3
,
M5
The mismatch is not in the inner-layer capacities themselves (still ~5/15/50/150, not technologically expandable) but between the number of ties the modern environment presents...
EEA-SOC-02 - Lifetime known-individual ceiling (~1,000)
grade: theoretical - contested - serves
M11
,
M3
EEA delivered a finite, slowly-accreting lifetime roster (~1,000+) in which virtually every encountered person was known or one reciprocal link away and carried trackable...
EEA-SOC-03 - Band / camp size (a few dozen adults; ~25-50)
grade: thin - contested - serves
M11
,
M3
The ancestral social field was a small set of a few dozen (~25-50) personally-known adults sharing a camp, sitting within the band/overnight-camp Dunbar layer.
EEA-SOC-04 - Within-camp kin fraction (low; campmates mostly unrelated)
grade: thin - serves
M11
,
M3
The ancestral signal was: 'the group around me is mostly unrelated people I (or my band) actively chose and continuously vetted through reciprocity and reputation;
EEA-SOC-05 - Membership turnover (camp dissolves and reconstitutes; ~12% repeated campmates year-over-year, ~88% annual turnover)
grade: thin - serves
M11
,
M3
The ancestral and modern environments are inverted on which layer is stable.
EEA-SOC-06 - Selection rule / "shuffle algorithm" (choice-driven; homophily + cooperation + reciprocity; kinship not main glue)
grade: thin - serves
M11
,
M3
The EEA delivered a continuous, agency-rich sorting process that filtered one's immediate social world toward reciprocating, cooperative, vouched-for partners - kinship was...
EEA-SOC-07 - Relationship longevity & maintenance (decades-long durable dyads; ~27-yr co-survival ceiling; maintenance institutions like hxaro conserve bonds across distance)
grade: thin - serves
M11
,
M3
The ancestral environment conserved the relationship across changing groups; the modern environment conserves the group label and lets the relationships churn.
EEA-SOC-08 - Novel-stranger frequency (rare, salient, often a threat)
grade: theoretical - serves
M1
,
M3
The delta is one of base rate and resolvability.
EEA-SOC-09 - Behavioral observability / reputation visibility
grade: theoretical - serves
M11
,
M5
The ancestral environment delivered near-total, embodied, hard-to-fake, single-identity behavioral observability inside a ~150-person reference group whose members knew one's...
Care & development (4)
EEA-CARE-01 - Alloparental care supply (a village, not a dyad)
grade: theoretical - serves
M3
,
M9
The mismatch is between the reliable, present, multi-caregiver surround the infant's attachment and the mother's reproductive psychology evolved to expect, and the thin one- or...
EEA-CARE-02 - Caregiver continuity and reliability (present, not merely countable)
grade: theoretical - serves
M9
,
R1
The mismatch is between caregiver reliability/continuity as an experienced, present regulatory input and a modern environment that often supplies caregivers who are countable but...
EEA-CARE-03 - Mixed-age child playgroups as developmental input
grade: theoretical - serves
M4
,
M9
The mismatch is between mixed-age, self-organized, physically-active play as the evolved calibrating input for the juvenile prefrontal cortex (M4, embedded in the alloparental...
EEA-CARE-04 - Multigenerational presence (grandmothers as provisioning kin)
grade: theoretical - serves
M3
,
M9
The mismatch is between the present, active, provisioning grandparental generation the cooperative-breeding system expects as part of allomaternal supply (M9, M3) and the modern...
Touch & contact (3)
EEA-TOUCH-01 - Affective (C-tactile) contact frequency and skin-to-skin time
grade: clinical - serves
M3
,
R1
Modern environments routinely fall below the ancestral affective-touch floor.
EEA-TOUCH-02 - Co-sleeping / nighttime body contact
grade: contested - contested - serves
M3
,
M7
,
R1
Solitary infant and child sleep removes the nighttime half of the ancestral continuous-contact regime, eliminating touch-based physiological co-regulation during sleep.
EEA-TOUCH-03 - Affective grooming/touch from trusted others (adult social touch)
grade: clinical - serves
M3
,
R1
Loss of routine affiliative touch from trusted others removes a direct endorphin-bonding and cortisol/cardiovascular stress-buffering input that operated continuously in ancestral...
Circadian & sensory (3)
EEA-CIRC-01 - Dawn/dusk light gradient with genuine nocturnal darkness as circadian entrainment signal
grade: theoretical - serves
M7
The modern light environment inverts the ancestral pattern on both ends: too little bright light by day, too much blue-enriched light at night, with no real darkness.
EEA-CIRC-02 - Sleep timing/phase alignment to the biological night (not a fixed duration target)
grade: longitudinal - serves
M7
The mismatch is primarily one of phase, not amount.
EEA-CIRC-03 - Falling evening ambient temperature as a co-primary sleep-onset cue
grade: theoretical - serves
M7
By flattening the daily thermal cycle, modern housing removes a candidate onset cue that historically co-occurred with dusk and reinforced circadian timing, potentially leaving...
Subsistence & time-use (4)
EEA-SUBS-01 - Daily incidental movement load
grade: theoretical - serves
M10
The gap is not a calorie or PAL gap (these are surprisingly close) but a distributional one: ancestral movement was low-intensity, continuous, and obligatory;
EEA-SUBS-02 - Effort-to-outcome contingency (closed-loop, self-attributable)
grade: longitudinal - serves
M2
,
M6
Because passivity is the unlearned default that only switches OFF when controllability is detected, environments that obscure the effort-outcome link don't feel neutral - they...
EEA-SUBS-03 - Task diversity within the subsistence day
grade: theoretical - serves
M2
The gap is the collapse from a high-variety, skill-diverse subsistence portfolio to narrow repetitive specialization, under-engaging the exploratory-pursuit system whose canonical...
EEA-SUBS-04 - Daily subsistence work-hours (contested)
grade: contested - contested - serves
M10
,
M2
,
M6
The defensible mismatch is in the STRUCTURE of work-time (externally clocked, continuous, boundary-less vs.
Diet & metabolic (4)
EEA-DIET-01 - Food diversity and seasonality (whole-food, micronutrient-dense, omnivorous variety)
grade: theoretical - contested - serves
M13
The modern food environment collapses a seasonally varied, micronutrient-dense, whole-food omnivory into a year-round monotony of refined, energy-dense, nutrient-diluted products,...
EEA-DIET-02 - Satiety-honest fiber and whole-food matrix (food that signals fullness truthfully)
grade: theoretical - contested - serves
M13
Industrial formulation deliberately separates the reward cues (sweet/fat/salt) from the satiety cues (fiber, bulk, slow digestion) the two were ancestrally bundled together, so...
EEA-DIET-03 - Acquisition effort (calories are physically worked for)
grade: clinical - serves
M10
,
M13
Removing the work between hunger and food eliminates a natural brake on consumption and decouples eating from the obligate daily movement it was bundled with - calories are now...
EEA-DIET-04 - Energy regulation is intake-bounded (total expenditure is homeostatically buffered, not behavior-throttled)
grade: replicated - serves
M13
Modern environments leave intake unbounded (cheap, hyperpalatable, effortless calories) while the body's expenditure stays homeostatically capped - so the one variable the system...
Threat & safety (3)
EEA-THREAT-01 - Threat temporality (acute, episodic, escapable-by-action)
grade: theoretical - serves
M1
,
M8
The mismatch is in the time-course, not the threat machinery itself.
EEA-THREAT-02 - Threat controllability and predictability (resolvable by own action)
grade: theoretical - serves
M1
,
M6
What is pathogenic is not threat per se but uncontrollability/unpredictability: the absence of an action that resolves the danger.
EEA-THREAT-03 - Real-vs-perceived threat ratio and all-clear resolution
grade: theoretical - serves
M1
,
M8
The pathogenic feature is the broken resolution loop: ancestrally, alarms (real or false) closed with an all-clear; modern abstract threats supply alarms that never close.
Information environment (2)
EEA-INFO-01 - Signal provenance and accountability (information from known, reputation-bearing, face-to-face sources)
grade: contested - contested - serves
M11
,
M3
,
M5
The evolved machinery for weighing information by source reputation and face-to-face accountability is deprived of the provenance cues it was calibrated to use.
EEA-INFO-02 - Gossip and narrative flow as reputation and norm transmission
grade: contested - contested - serves
M11
,
M5
The gossip/narrative channel that ancestrally fused information transmission with reputation tracking and norm enforcement is decoupled.
Applications (8)
A2 - Clinical Practice
Current psychiatry classifies many aversive presentations as disorders and treats them with suppression (pharmacotherapy, CBT targeting the experience).
mechanisms:
M1
,
M2
,
M3
,
M6
,
M7
,
M8
,
M10
,
M13
A5 - Education and Child Development
Current education treats children as cognitive agents to fill with information, organized around the economic value of the adult they will become.
mechanisms:
M3
,
M4
,
M6
,
M7
,
M9
,
M10
,
R1
A1 - AI Alignment
Cor is the missing specification under AI alignment.
mechanisms:
M3
,
M5
,
M14
,
M2
A3 - Environment Design
Architecture, urban planning, office design, product design, school design, and healthcare facility design currently proceed without a clear account of what the human organism...
mechanisms:
M3
,
M4
,
M5
,
M7
,
M9
,
M10
,
M13
,
R1
A6 - Policy and Governance
Governance currently evaluates policy by economic metrics and preference aggregation.
mechanisms:
M3
,
M5
,
M6
,
M7
,
M10
,
M13
,
M14
A4 - Personal Assessment and Self-Understanding
Individuals currently diagnose themselves through the cultural filter of psychiatric categories, productivity culture, wellness trends, or self-help frameworks.
mechanisms:
M1
,
M2
,
M3
,
M4
,
M5
,
M6
,
M7
,
M8
,
M9
,
M10
,
M11
,
M12
,
M13
,
M14
,
R1
A7 - AI Training Data Curation
Pretraining data is AI environment.
mechanisms:
M1
,
M2
,
M3
,
M5
A8 - Augmentation Ethics
Neural interfaces, pharmacological modulators, and closed-loop implants reach inside the evolved architecture.
mechanisms:
M1
,
M2
,
M3
,
M6
Empirical Demonstrations (9)
ED2 - Captive vs Wild Chimpanzee Abnormality
Aversive behavioral outputs in captive primates are a function of environmental mismatch rather than defective design: every one of the 40 captive chimpanzees studied showed at...
metric: All 40 captive chimps abnormal; none reported in wild
grounds:
M1
,
M4
ED6 - SMILES Trial: Diet and Depression
A Mediterranean-style dietary intervention produces clinically meaningful remission from moderate-to-severe depression at ~4× the rate of social-support control over 12 weeks,...
metric: 32% vs 8% remission at 12 weeks (NNT≈4)
grounds:
M13
,
M8
ED4 - Roseto Effect
Intense social cohesion can override standard cardiovascular risk factors to produce dramatically lower heart disease mortality - and the effect erodes within a generation once...
metric: ~50% lower heart disease mortality during cohesion era
grounds:
M3
,
M5
ED5 - Ilardi TLC Protocol for Depression
Treating depression by restoring resolution conditions across multiple mechanisms simultaneously (exercise, omega-3, sleep, sunlight, anti-rumination, social connection) produces...
metric: ~75% response vs ~45% on SSRI monotherapy
grounds:
M3
,
M7
,
M10
,
M8
ED7 - Exercise as Depression Treatment
Aerobic exercise at moderate intensity produces depression symptom reduction comparable to SSRI pharmacotherapy in head-to-head randomized trials and meta-analyses, supporting M10...
metric: Cohen's d ~0.8; non-inferior to SSRI in RCTs
grounds:
M10
,
M7
,
M8
ED1 - Forest Troop Culture Change
Hierarchy type (not the mere existence of hierarchy) determines pathology, and a troop's social culture is transmissible and reversible within a single generation without genetic...
metric: Cortisol reduced ~30-40% vs baseline
grounds:
M5
,
M1
ED8 - Chronotherapy in Depression
Total sleep deprivation combined with morning bright light and sleep-phase advance produces 60%+ response rates in bipolar depression within days - orders of magnitude faster than...
metric: ~60% bipolar depression response within first week
grounds:
M7
,
M8
ED3 - Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Early developmental calibration (DA7) depends on the presence of specific social input;
metric: Foster care doubles IQ recovery vs institutional care
grounds:
M3
,
M9
ED9 - Kangaroo Mother Care
Skin-to-skin contact between premature infants and caregivers reduces mortality, improves physiological regulation, and produces long-term developmental benefits - demonstrating...
metric: ~40% neonatal mortality reduction; benefits at 20 years
grounds:
R1
,
M3
,
M9
Research Domains (23)
Mechanism-aligned (15)
Threat Management
->
M1
Pursuit and Exploration
->
M2
Attachment and Social Bonding
->
M3
Play and Social Calibration
->
M4
Status and Rank Regulation
->
M5
Agency and Controllability
->
M6
Sleep and Circadian Regulation
->
M7
Inflammation and Immune Regulation
->
M8
Alloparenting and Distributed Care
->
M9
Movement and Regulatory Physiology
->
M10
Cooperation and Alliance
->
M11
Contamination and Behavioral Immunity
->
M12
Energy Regulation and Diet
->
M13
Reproductive Motivation
->
M14
Touch and C-Tactile Input
->
R1
Cross-cutting (8)
Cascade Dynamics
Proxy Exploitation
Developmental Calibration
Allostatic Load
Defensive Signals and Symptom Reframing
Mismatch Architecture
Bridge Thesis Research
Restorative Environments
Researchers (81)
Foundational (36)
Hoffman - OF1 (Fitness Interface)
Darwin - P1 (Inclusive Fitness)
Hamilton - P1 (Inclusive Fitness)
Tooby - P2, DA6 (Domain-Sensitive Interacting Adaptations)
Eaton - P3 (Systematic Mismatch)
Konner - P3 (Systematic Mismatch)
Li (Norman) - P3 (Systematic Mismatch)
van Vugt - P3 (Systematic Mismatch)
Henrich - P3 (Systematic Mismatch)
Nesse - DA1 (Defensive Signals Under Mismatch)
Coan (James) - DA2 (Socially Scaffolded Regulation)
Felitti - DA3 (Recurrent Coupling and Cascading)
Berridge (Kent) - DA4 (Proxy Hijacking via Open Loops)
Tinbergen - DA4 (Proxy Hijacking via Open Loops)
Haselton - DA5 (Defensive Over-Activation Bias)
Buss - DA5, M14 (Defensive Over-Activation Bias)
Bowlby - DA7, M3 (Developmental Calibration)
Panksepp - DA8, M1, M2, M3, M4, M14 (Phylogenetic Priority)
McEwen - DC1, DA7 (Allostatic Load Accumulation)
Barrett (Lisa Feldman) - Bridge Thesis (Panksepp-Barrett resolution)
Dunbar - DA2 social architecture
Boehm - M11 (Cooperation / Alliance)
Trivers - M11, M14, DA6 (Cooperation / Alliance)
Gilbert (Paul) - M5 (Status Monitoring)
Rozin - M12 (Contamination Avoidance)
Hrdy - M9, DA2 (Care / Alloparenting)
Sapolsky - M5 + empirical demonstrations (Forest Troop)
Tomasello - M11 (Cooperation / Alliance)
Fehr & Gächter - M11 (empirical)
Curtis (Val) - M12 (Contamination Avoidance)
Cosmides - P2, DA6 (Domain-Sensitive Interacting Adaptations)
Boyd - P3 constraint
Richerson - P3 constraint
LeDoux - M1 threat detection, amygdala fear conditioning
Ainsworth - M3 attachment paradigm - Strange Situation
Henrich & Gil-White - Theoretical origin of the prestige/dominance dual model of human social rank: prestige as freely conferred deference for competence (an information-goods adaptation for cultural learning), distinct from dominance (rank via force/fear). The distinction M5's resolution condition names.
Empirical (36)
Harlow - attachment experiments - Nature of Love 1958
Holt-Lunstad - 50% mortality meta-analysis
Meaney - HPA-axis calibration
Birkett & Newton-Fisher - captive chimp abnormality data
Marmot - Whitehall studies
Jacka - SMILES trial - diet and depression
Moss (Michael) - DC2 - food industry market proxy exploitation
Schüll (Natasha Dow) - DC2 - gambling machine design as engineered proxy exploitation
Hazan - adult attachment - romantic love as attachment process
de Waal - empirical anchor (de Waal, primate sociality/empathy); work + links pending v1 corpus build
Haugen (Frances) - DC2 - attention-economy platforms as engineered proxy exploitation
Cacioppo (John T.) - Loneliness as evolved signaling mechanism; social neuroscience; UCLA Loneliness Scale lineage and Ohio State / University of Chicago lab program on physiological consequences of perceived social isolation. Secondary role: Hawkley-Cacioppo hypervigilance-to-threat cascade in lonely individuals.
Lieberman (Daniel) - Evolutionary anthropologist and human-evolutionary biologist. Primary scholar of the evolutionary biology of physical activity, running, walking, and the mismatch between evolved movement patterns and modern sedentary lifestyles. Named in M10 Movement/Regulatory source_researchers array. His work on hunter-gatherer activity levels, endurance-running evolution, and the active grandparent hypothesis provides the central evolutionary framing for M10 and M13.
Pellis (Sergio & Vivien) - Comparative psychologists at the University of Lethbridge. Primary research on the neurobiology and cross-species behavioral ecology of play, particularly play-fighting in rats and across mammalian taxa. Named in M4 Social Calibration/Play source_researchers array. Their work provides the definitive synthesis of the neurobiological substrates of play (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, somatosensory cortex, opioid/dopamine modulation) and the cross-species comparative study of play behavior.
Bullmore (Edward) - Psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Head of Department of Psychiatry at University of Cambridge and co-leader of GlaxoSmithKline clinical-imaging division. Primary researcher on neuroimmunology of depression - the cytokine / inflammation / mood cascade. His 2018 book The Inflamed Mind synthesizes the Dantzer/Raison/Miller/Danese literature on cytokine sickness behavior, inflammation as causal in depression, and the failed monoamine paradigm for a general audience.
Muldoon & Parke - DC2 - companion AI as market proxy exploitation
Fisher (Helen) - Reproductive motivation architecture; three-component system (lust / romantic love / attachment) with distinct neurochemical substrates; fMRI studies of romantic love with Lucy Brown and Art Aron; cross-cultural fieldwork on pair-bonding, mating, divorce, and adultery; Match.com singles-survey data on contemporary mating patterns. Listed in M14 the M14 source-researchers list.
Pontzer (Herman) - Evolutionary anthropologist and human energetics researcher. Primary researcher on the constrained total energy expenditure model - the finding that active populations (hunter-gatherers, subsistence farmers, physically demanding jobs) have total daily energy expenditure similar to sedentary industrialized populations of the same body size, because the body adapts metabolically to keep TEE within a narrow range. His Hadza field studies and multi-population comparisons are the empirical backbone for M13 Energy Regulation.
Field (Tiffany) - Developmental psychologist and director of the Touch Research Institute at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Primary researcher for R1 Touch. Her work established touch as a measurable developmental and therapeutic input with quantifiable effects on cortisol, weight gain (premature infants), growth, pain, and behavior. Field has published hundreds of papers on massage therapy, touch deprivation, maternal-infant touch, and cultural variation in touch.
Öhman - prepared fear / attentional bias to ancestral threats
Baumeister & Leary - empirical anchor (Baumeister & Leary, 'need to belong'); work + foundation/mechanism links pending v1 corpus build
Mark R. Leary - Sociometer theory: self-esteem as an internal gauge of relational value / social acceptance. Supplies the measurement axis of M5 Status Monitoring - how the organism reads its own standing. Distinct from the Baumeister & Leary need-to-belong pairing (M3).
Joey T. Cheng - Experimental demonstration that dominance and prestige are statistically independent yet both viable routes to real social rank and influence in live face-to-face groups. Empirical anchor for the prestige/dominance axis of M5.
Christopher von Rueden - Non-WEIRD cross-cultural evidence that dominance and prestige are distinct status routes with real fitness payoffs among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. Cross-cultural anchor for M5's prestige/dominance distinction and its adaptive basis.
Garfield & Hagen - Field test of evolutionary leadership models among the Chabu (recently settled Ethiopian hunter-gatherers): prestige and dominance largely independent, both predict elected leadership, prestige more important; strong covariation of leadership traits and notable women leaders.
Scheer (Frank A. J. L.) - M7 - controlled human circadian-misalignment protocols; causal cardiometabolic consequences of misalignment (forced desynchrony).
Morris (Christopher J.) - M7 - simulated night-shift misalignment; blood-pressure and inflammatory-marker consequences.
Zeitzer (Jamie M.) - M7 - dose-response sensitivity of the human circadian pacemaker to nocturnal light.
Khalsa (Sat Bir S.) - M7 - definitive human phase-response curve to single bright-light pulses.
Vyas (Manav V.) - M7 - meta-analysis of shift work and vascular events.
Fischer (Dorothee) - M7 - chronotype distribution at US population scale (MCTQ mid-sleep applied to the American Time Use Survey).
Gettler - fatherhood-testosterone longitudinal evidence (Cebu cohort)
Feldman (Ruth) - parental brain and biobehavioral synchrony; paternal-care neuroplasticity
McLanahan - father-absence causal-design synthesis (Fragile Families)
Plomin - DA10, C15 (adoption/family-design leg of the heritability triangulation) (Heritable Parameter Variation)
Turkheimer - DA10, C15 (framing: three laws of behavior genetics) (Heritable Parameter Variation)
Adjacent / Challenge (8)
Borsboom - network psychopathology - complementary
Kenrick et al. - Renovating Pyramid of Needs (most structurally similar precedent)
SDT / Deci & Ryan - challenge-layer competitor anchor (Self-Determination Theory / Deci & Ryan); composite placeholder, wire in v1 (G11)
Chollet / ARC-AGI - challenge-layer competitor anchor (Chollet / ARC-AGI); composite placeholder, wire in v1 (G11)
Liebig - DA9 historical precedent - Law of the Minimum
RDoC - challenge-layer competitor anchor (RDoC); extraction/work wiring deferred to v1 per gap G11 (challenge-layer depth)
ACT-R / SOAR / CLARION - challenge-layer competitor anchor (ACT-R / SOAR / CLARION cognitive architectures); composite placeholder, to be split + wired in v1 (G11)
Active Inference / Friston - challenge-layer competitor anchor (Active Inference / Friston) - the strongest framework-level competitor named in gap G11; wire in v1
Open Questions (16)
G9 - AI alignment matched/mismatched evaluation axis operationalization
A1 proposes 'matched / mismatched' as a fourth evaluation axis alongside helpful, harmless, and honest.
G1 - DC2 empirical depth beyond Schüll and Moss
Dedicated empirical depth on Haugen's Facebook Files and on companion-AI harm.
G6 - Matched-state measurement protocol
Cor specifies resolution conditions per mechanism (for example M3: reliable intimate co-regulators typically ~5+;
G5 - Tier 3 regulatory-input candidates beyond R1
R1 (Touch) is currently the only Tier 3 regulatory input in the inventory.
G12 - Phase 8 provenance mis-classification risk
Some extractions imported from prior cleanup passes may be mis-classified at the source_type level - for example, an extraction marked as 'primary' research that on closer reading...
G14 - Joint-authorship FK limitation on v2_works
Jointly-authored works are currently credited to a single primary researcher in the database, with co-authors listed only in the free-text authors field.
G2 - M14 cross-cultural variation evidence
M14 is sex-differentiated, with distinct female (VMH-centered) and male (POA-centered) neural architectures carrying different emphasis on commitment cues versus variety cues.
G3 - M6 human neurobiology replication
The Maier & Seligman 2016 reformulation of learned helplessness (default passivity with vmPFC-DRN override) is well-supported in rodent models, but the human neurobiological...
G4 - Bridge Thesis BT1 empirical discriminator
BT1 (Panksepp-Barrett Resolution) is defended conceptually - subcortical affective circuits are real, and folk emotion categories are constructed overlays on top of them.
G7 - Cultural-matched vs ancestrally-matched distinction
Boyd & Richerson's gene-culture coevolution constraint requires that 'matched' include cultural scaffolding, not just ancestral surface forms.
G8 - M14 proxy gradient clinical validation
The five-level M14 proxy gradient (real partner → attenuated real → partial proxy → pure proxy soft → pure proxy hard) is architecturally derived but lacks clinical validation...
G10 - Convergence coverage for 10 of 15 mechanisms
Cor's forcing-convergence layer currently covers 5 of 15 mechanisms (M1, M2, M3, M11, M14) with explicit multi-literature convergences.
G11 - Challenge layer depth
The current challenge layer holds 5 challenge extractions (EAAT philosophical critique, social-media-effect-size meta-analyses, Landy disgust-moral meta-analysis).
G13 - v2_extractions evidence_quality schema narrowing
The current evidence_quality categories compress some distinctions that matter for specific epistemic claims - cross-species biological replications, landmark longitudinal...
G15 - Restorative Environments domain primary-source grounding
The new Restorative Environments domain has no primary extractions yet.
G16 - Social-mismatch competition: candidate convergence versus downstream expression
Yong, Lim, Tan and Chan 2026 (DOI 10.3390/bs16050650) advance a "social evolutionary mismatch and competition hypothesis": social features of mismatch (increasing population size,...
Cor
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