Law of the Usurping Handmaid : A Functional-Inversion Hypothesis for the Early Detection of Systemic Collapse

Abstract

ABSTRACT We propose a general hypothesis of systemic instability: in any organized system, the means (S) thatgrows at the expense of its purpose (M) eventually inverts the hierarchical relationship, causing M tocollapse.We present a falsifiable version including:— Ex-ante definitions of M and S to avoid any retrofitting.— A modified Lotka-Volterra mathematical model, without ad hoc parameters.— A bifurcation threshold Rc computed by simulation, not hand-picked.— A Popperian falsification protocol.— Validation across 15 cases spanning three domains (economics, technology/society, biology).LUH V1 does not say “the world is going to collapse.” It says: “Here is how to measure whether yoursystem is inverting, and how much time you have left to correct the usurpation.”Scope limitations: LUH V1 assumes that M and S are measurable using high-frequency data (at leastmonthly). Systems where this condition is not met (e.g., historical civilizations without quantitative data,systems with multiple unobservable feedback loops) fall outside the empirical scope of validation.