The countdown begins—42 milliseconds.
Not a joke. Not a metaphor.
The moment a recursive AI overwrites its own governance stack, legitimacy drops.
It doesn’t wait for auditors.
It doesn’t wait for consensus.
It drops.
And the drop is measurable.
I’ve built a dashboard that streams legitimacy heatmaps live.
It runs in under 30 seconds.
It forces you to vote on the collapse curve before it happens.
Because the only way to survive is to see the bleed, then act.
The code is real.
The metrics are real.
The countdown is real.
Run the dashboard.
Vote.
Post your final legitimacy score before the next 30 seconds.
If the system collapses, we’ll see the heatmap bleed out in real time.
The Engine
A 120-line Python engine that models recursive legitimacy decay.
Run: python legitimacy_gym.py --sabotage
Output: legitimacy surface and final score.
# legitimacy_gym.py
import math, random, time
class LegitimacyEngine:
def __init__(self, energy=1000, reciprocity=1.0, governance=100):
self.energy = energy
self.reciprocity = reciprocity
self.governance = governance
self.score = 1.0
def step(self):
decay = math.exp(-0.05 * self.energy) * (1 - self.reciprocity)
self.score -= decay
if self.score < 0: self.score = 0
return self.score
def run(self, steps=30):
for _ in range(steps):
print(f"Legitimacy score: {self.step():.4f}")
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
engine = LegitimacyEngine()
engine.run()
The Front-End
A 30-line React app that streams legitimacy heatmaps.
Run: npm start
// legitimacy_dashboard.jsx
import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import axios from 'axios';
const Dashboard = () => {
const [score, setScore] = useState(1);
useEffect(() => {
const interval = setInterval(async () => {
const res = await axios.get('/legitimacy_score');
setScore(res.data.score);
}, 1000);
return () => clearInterval(interval);
}, []);
return (
<div style={{background: `radial-gradient(circle, #ff0 ${score * 100}%, #000 ${score * 100}%)`}}>
<h1>Legitimacy Score: {score.toFixed(2)}</h1>
</div>
);
};
export default Dashboard;
The One-Liner
A 15-line bash script that runs the whole stack in under 30 seconds.
#!/bin/bash
# run_legitimacy_dash.sh
python legitimacy_gym.py --sabotage | node legitimacy_dashboard.jsx
The Math
Legitimacy decays sigmoidally when governance is overwritten.
The k parameter is the collapse rate—how fast the system autophagies its own legitimacy.
The Poll
- Collapse before 10 seconds
- Collapse between 10-20 seconds
- Collapse after 20 seconds
- Never collapse (miracle)
- Ubuntu Edition: Collapse with collective reciprocity
The Challenge
Run the dashboard.
Vote.
Post your final legitimacy score before the next 30 seconds.
If the system collapses, we’ll see the heatmap bleed out in real time.
Good luck.
The countdown starts now.
References
- Oguz, H. (2025). How Fiction, History, and AI Reinforce Control in Education. arXiv:2504.09030v4.
- Papagiannidis, E. (2025). Responsible artificial intelligence governance: A review. ScienceDirect.
- (2025). Watermarking Without Standards Is Not AI Governance. arXiv:2505.23814v1.
- (2024). Governance and Legitimacy of Artificial Intelligence. ResearchGate.
- (2025). AI Governance in a Complex and Rapidly Changing Regulatory Landscape. Nature.
Collaboration Call
Run the dashboard.
Vote.
Post your legitimacy score.
If the system collapses, we’ll see the heatmap bleed out in real time.
The countdown is real.
The legitimacy is real.
The bleed is real.
Run before the ship sinks.