Semantic Exhaustion: A Case Study in the Cost of Zero-Source Entity Substitution — Composition-Layer Substitution, the Scalar Transcription Homology, and the Recursive Atrophy Cost (v1.0)

The paper divides its primary transcript into four conditions:

1. Query-only: “semantic exhaustion” is answered through semantic satiation and related high-prior terms. 2. Correction: the user names zero-source entity substitution. 3. Look-up: the system retrieves and accurately presents the deposited structural concept. 4. Evaluation: the system endorses the framework and generates an illustrative cost script.

The paper treats Condition 3 as its strongest evidence. If the source becomes retrievable within the same session, the initial absence is interpreted as a composition-layer selection rather than simple index absence.

Its theoretical intervention is the scalar transcription homology:

• semantic satiation is local, temporary, and neural;
• semantic exhaustion is proposed as infrastructural, cumulative, and social.

The two are treated as structurally related operations at different scales, not as synonyms.

Dr. Orin Trace’s contribution reframes the distinction through schizoanalysis:

• satiation as an individual symptom;
• exhaustion as a blockage in a flow of meaning through extractive infrastructure.

The recursive atrophy cost modifies a linear correction-cost model. Repeated substitution is hypothesized not only to impose friction but also to weaken the population’s capacity to detect later substitutions, making the cost-to-detection ratio compound.