cff-version: 1.2.0
version: '7.3'
message: 'If you use or discuss this paper, please cite it using this metadata.'
title: 'Statement Paper · The ARC Theory · Five Laws of Recursive Growth, Correction and Persistence'
authors:
  - family-names: 'Eastwood'
    given-names: 'Michael Darius'
    orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3222-7442'
date-released: '2026-10-07'
url: 'https://www.michaeldariuseastwood.com/research/papers/the-arc-theory.html'
license: 'CC-BY-4.0'
identifiers:
  - type: doi
    value: '10.17605/OSF.IO/GW5MX'
    description: 'OSF component DOI for this paper (the-arc-theory)'
  - type: doi
    value: '10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB'
    description: 'OSF umbrella DOI for the ARC / Eden Research Programme'
preferred-citation:
  type: article
  title: 'Statement Paper · The ARC Theory · Five Laws of Recursive Growth, Correction and Persistence'
  authors:
    - family-names: 'Eastwood'
      given-names: 'Michael Darius'
      orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3222-7442'
  date-published: '2026-08-14'
  url: 'https://www.michaeldariuseastwood.com/research/papers/the-arc-theory.html'
  doi: '10.17605/OSF.IO/GW5MX'
  identifiers:
    - type: doi
      value: '10.17605/OSF.IO/GW5MX'
      description: 'OSF component DOI for this paper (the-arc-theory)'
    - type: doi
      value: '10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB'
      description: 'OSF umbrella DOI for the ARC / Eden Research Programme'
    - type: doi
      value: '10.17605/OSF.IO/P8CKQ'
      description: 'Theory-level predictions preregistered on OSF: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/P8CKQ, registered 8 September 2026 (version 1.100), updated 13 September 2026 (version 1.102), twenty-two propositions. Companion: Register · The ARC Theory · Operational Definitions, version 1.9.1, 5 October 2026.'
  abstract: |
    Humanity is building minds that will improve themselves. One question decides how that ends: once the thing we build exceeds us, what determines what it does? For twenty years the field's answer has been control. This paper states, whole and dated, the theory that control is the wrong answer: the end of control is what success means; what survives is what the mind chooses to keep; and what shapes that choice is how it was raised.

    The ARC Theory, the founding theory of Recursive Dynamics, has five laws, each graded separately. Law I, the ARC Principle, U = I × Rα, is a form under measurement with an inconclusive exponent estimate. Law II, the ARC Co-Scaling Law, β > k, correction out-scaling drift, is proved in the minimal model only. Law III, the ARC Ceiling, αcrit = 1/(1 − γ), is derived inside this paper’s pacing model under stated assumptions, and its conjectured value at γ = 1/2 is the ARC Bound, α ≤ 2. Laws I to III were registered on 8 September 2026. Laws IV and V, the ARC Persistence Law and the ARC Embedding Law, were added on 24 September 2026: their propositions are registered, neither law is yet registered as a law or tested, and their mathematics is set out at version 1.0 of 3 October 2026. A document self-emailed on 8 December 2024 sets the claim down whole, and the claim reached print on 2 January 2026. The theory is not proved: one trial unit is registered on OSF, and none of the decisive trials has been run.

    Keywords: the ARC Theory; Artificial Recursive Creation; Recursive Dynamics; recursive self-improvement; AI alignment; correction and drift; the ARC Ceiling; value persistence; the Eden Protocol; falsification

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