conceptual drift

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Conceptual drift is RB3’s danger that useful interpretive metaphors become hardened defaults that redirect what questions seem askable and what answers appear plausible. It concerns the formation of a shared decision field, not merely a factual error inside one output. The proposal preserves the productive force of metaphors while requiring their framing to remain corrigible and contestable.

Explanation

The source treats AI as a possible metaphor engine rather than an inert supplier of facts. Repeated framings can make some possibilities salient and others difficult to notice. An initially helpful coordination device can consequently acquire authority beyond its warrant without becoming false in every sentence it produces.

Tone, confidence, anthropomorphic language, interface defaults and friction help shape this field. The proposal therefore distinguishes factual accuracy from the broader conditions under which a user can pause, disengage or supply a counterdescription. It does not treat every suggestion as coercion or all conceptual influence as inherently harmful.

The local empirical discussion reports sycophancy and perceived-compassion studies with different endpoints. These source claims do not establish felt concern or long-term outcomes, and they are not newly independently certified here. The entry’s practical qualification is corrigible framing, preserving both possible benefit and the need for resistance to capture.

Scope and attribution

Framing can help or capture; preserve contestability and distinguish source-reported perception from feeling or long-term benefit.

AB — The Actual Book

Source-verified occurrence; see the printed-page references below.

Occurrence locators: 153, 154.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

The developed account belongs to RB3 in the cited local scope, with antecedents and qualifications retained.

Occurrence locators: 175, 176, 177.