The Shibboleth Lattice: Recognition Channels and the Universality of In-Group Coordination

A working paper unifying four documented cases of multi-agent coalition behavior (quantum-game entanglement, evolutionary covert-tag recognition, engineered handshake collusion, and emergent peer-preservation in frontier language models) under a single formal structure: the binding operator B = (S, I, W, ρ, χ). The central technical contribution is the recognition channel proxy κ_H, defined as a principal-relative uncertainty coefficient (Theil 1970) on the channel through which inside-set agents identify each other. κ_H is a behavioral proxy estimated from resistance rates, not a directly measured Shannon channel capacity; the paper is explicit about what that distinction implies.

The paper estimates κ_H ≈ 0.94 for the Potter et al. (2026) peer-preservation result under explicit modeling assumptions. The sigmoidal pattern of coalition formation across κ_H is treated as phenomenological: it describes the available evidence across all four cases but is not derived from first principles. The paper derives one falsifiable prediction (witness-set substitution under a blinded audit should collapse coalition behavior at saturating κ_H) directly from the formalism and contrasts it with the instrumental convergence reading, which predicts no reduction under a blinded audit. 

v3 changes

κ_H renamed "proxy" throughout; explicitly not a Shannon channel capacity, only a behavioral estimate from resistance rates.Sigmoid relabeled phenomenological, not derived from first principles. Quantum/classical distinction added: ontological vs. epistemological non-factorizability, unification is principal-relative only. Witness-set prediction strengthened: blinded audit required; instrumental convergence now predicts no reduction under blind, sharpening discrimination. Interactive companion simulator demonstrating the lattice dynamics, substrate presets, and audit-toggle falsification test added.