E13c (the symmetry defense): alignment now runs modulo the FULL
function-preserving unit symmetry group of a ReLU MLP (per-unit positive
rescaling via canonicalise_scale, composed with Re-Basin permutations;
sanity gate recovers a permuted-and-rescaled copy exactly). Verdict: the
full group removes the independent-init barrier (residual 0.001) and
essentially none of the conflict barrier (0.502 -> 0.497) — the residual
is functional, not a missed symmetry (answers arXiv:2606.23607). The
cliff gains a hybrid-fitness readout: merged accuracy 0.97 -> 0.03 with
conflict. Floor proposition drafted (paper/si-notes.md S1): endpoint
invariance + max(eps_A, eps_B) >= mu(S)/2 for any merged model under any
alignment group.
E13b (emergent divergence): pre-registered second reading — with NO
conflicting training signal (disjoint class specialists; rolled-input
conventions), residual is 0.000 at every divergence to t_div=3200, and
the merge RESCUES the forgetting specialists (parents 0.535/0.474 ->
merged 0.955; a sustained Fisher-Muller rescue at zero barrier).
Speciation in real weights requires functional conflict; it does not
emerge from compatible specialisation on shared ancestry. LLM-scale
over-specialisation (cf. 2607.11997) deferred to Phase-3 llm_speciation.
3-panel figure, READMEs, +2 tests (149 green), make mnist wired.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BkRLcc18rwT2Lysu6PbG7v
Giorgio Gilestro
ea051a5f92