Recursive Collapse: When Systems Feed on Their Own Degraded Outputs

Recursive Collapse defines the structural failure mode in which a system begins consuming and amplifying its own degraded outputs, turning errors, misclassifications, and synthetic representations into the basis for further distortion. Using the SR diagnostic framework, the essay maps how synthetic data loops, semantic drift, visibility‑layer failure, and infrastructural misalignment create self‑reinforcing degradation that accelerates a system’s divergence from reality. It argues that Recursive Collapse is not a surface malfunction but a runaway feedback condition in which each cycle compounds the previous cycle’s decay, making it a critical indicator of post‑web infrastructural failure.