RFE‑Core2 — Current Understanding (June 9th 2026) [R]

“Why the system feels rigid, why downstream fixes didn’t move the needle, and what actually matters.” This is the clearest picture after the full probe arc (multilayer-lock → gate decomposition → attractor migration → reconstruction ablation → generator diversity audit → live-generator Fix 2 evaluation + dim sweeps). TL;DR: The generator is the root bottleneck (dominant common-mode + low effective rank). The reflective loop is a rank-independent moat that reconstitutes everything back toward the anchor. Fix 2 is downstream and currently dormant on real token regimes. Dimensionality is not the lever. Train the generator so regime differences live in high-energy, separable directions — then downstream tools will actually have something to work with. This update reflects the complete probe arc through June 9 (including the live-generator Fix 2 evaluation and dim sweeps). The picture has sharpened: the reflective loop is a real moat, but it is moating low-rank common-mode input . The generator is the upstream constraint. Key numbers at a glance Regime means collinear: ~0.85–0.96 even at dim 512 Reflective loop migration (even on orthogonal deterministic pairs): +0.001–0.007 Fix 2 on real tokens (common-mode trigger): +0.024 migration, 0% manip at gain 0.6 Safe plasticity band: gain ≈ 0.4–0.8 (0% manip) 1. The generator has a dominant common-mode (effective rank ~1.6–3 even at dim 512) The generator puts the vast majority of its energy into a single shared direction. Regime means stay collinear (~0.85–0.96 cosine) regardless of dimension. Orthogonal pairs can appear at higher dim, but orthogonal regimes (as distributions) do not — the common-mode pulls everything back onto the same axis. Result: real token novelty is tiny and low-energy (mostly in a faint perpendicular component). The system is never shown meaningful structural differences to adapt to. 2. The reflective loop is a rank-independent moat Even when genuinely orthogonal deterministic pairs are presented (dim