The Orbital Mind: A Formal Research Program for Regulatory Conflict and Action Initiation

The Orbital Mind proposes that difficulties of self-regulation can arise from interactions among otherwise useful functions rather than a deficit in one function alone. This paper translates the book's formal research program into a more restricted, testable agenda. A mathematical audit separates properties of a proposed model from consequences that require additional assumptions: mutual inhibition does not guarantee a stable co-active deadlock; a threshold crossing need not be a fold bifurcation; and a generic recurrent network need not possess a scalar potential. A separately specified cubic normal form illustrates conditional predictions about action initiation, cessation and barrier height. Deterministic branch calculations and counterexamples are supplied as reproducible illustrations, not observations of human behavior. Ten hypotheses are organized into staged behavioral, measurement, neural and cross-scale studies. The first priority is a nonclinical action-initiation experiment with parameter and model recovery, matched alternatives, and held-out prediction. No participants, clinical outcomes, fitted psychological parameters or evidence of cross-scale invariance are reported. The contribution is a corrected mathematical specification and a prospective research agenda, not a validated theory of the self. Status: Theoretical and methodological working paper, version 1.0; not peer reviewed. No human participants, clinical results, fitted psychological parameters, preregistration or validation of cross-scale invariance are reported. Materials: The standalone LaTeX PDF is accompanied by the source, deterministic calculation code, 15,606 synthetic equilibrium-branch rows, mathematical checks, environment instructions and checksums. The illustrations do not simulate or validate human behavior. Companion book: The Orbital Mind: The Astrophysics of the Self, by Mayone Maha Rajan, The Maha Research Series, Book 2. Adapted from Part V and Appendices D–F of the October 2026 revised book. Kindle ebook; paperback (ISBN 9798161302286). The book provides conceptual provenance, not evidence validating the proposal. Purchasing the book is not necessary to understand or reproduce the paper. Disclosure: ChatGPT assisted the adaptation, literature checks, mathematical audit, code, drafting and typesetting. The author directs and takes responsibility for the release and has a commercial interest in the companion book. AI assistance is not independent expert review.