This conceptual paper outlines the structural foundations of the Cognitive Inequality Theorem (CIT), situating it within the broader SignalRupture canon. It examines how democratic systems presuppose equal cognitive agency while institutions, through drift, scarcity, and conditioning, produce uneven cognitive conditions. The paper distinguishes between adaptive and fixed cognitive tendencies as context‑dependent orientations rather than fixed psychological types, formalizes the mechanism of recursive abstraction within institutional drift, and preserves the bridge sentence linking this conceptual manuscript to the formal theorem paper. The result is a unified framework explaining how cognitive inequality emerges as a predictable outcome of institutional design and resource constraints rather than as an incidental deviation from democratic ideals.
Signal Rupture (Mon,) studied this question.