Spontaneous Narrative Projection: A Formal Model

This paper formalizes spontaneous narrative projection (SNP) — the involuntary, instantaneous construction of architecturally complete relational narratives triggered by transient encounters with anonymous individuals. Beginning with the specific case of micro love, we develop a formal model grounded in predictive processing theory, information-theoretic compression, and dynamical systems analysis. The model specifies necessary conditions, three engine components (input filter with dual-condition trigger, self-sustaining construction function, multi-modal decay function), temporal compression via structural keyframing, and a novel characterization as anchored autopoiesis. We generalize beyond romantic templates to show the engine is template-agnostic, introduce state-dependent weighting with clinical implications, and establish a structural isomorphism with large language model text generation that reframes prompt engineering as dual-condition trigger construction. Finally, we formalize the template library as a self-modifying developmental system and introduce cultural pre-training as the mechanism seeding individual template libraries. Twenty falsifiable predictions are derived.