Study IV: Civilizational Failure Modes. A Formal EF Taxonomy of Structural Failure Across All Scales of Informational Civilization
Abstract
This study develops the formal taxonomy of civilizational failure modes through the mechanics of Emotional Field Theory (EF). It is the fourth study in the EF Informational Civilization Series, synthesizing the analytical layers established in Studies I–III — macro dynamics, attention layer, and individual agent — into a unified cross-scale failure taxonomy. The study presents a ten-entry taxonomy of formally distinct civilizational failure modes across macro social, institutional, attention/platform, individual agent, relational, and cross-scale layers. Each failure mode is specified through its formal EF signature, source citation, mechanism, observable diagnostic, and recovery condition. The study also develops a cross-scale coupling analysis showing how failure modes at each level drive and amplify failure at adjacent levels, generating the compound civilizational trap. It distinguishes operationally active stagnation from informationally visible collapse, explains why standard civilizational repair mechanisms are structurally predicted to fail under different failure-mode conditions, and proposes recovery sequencing requirements derived from EF dynamics. The ten failure modes are: FM01 O₀-Dominant Social Attractor Lock; FM02 Institutional Density Trap; FM03 Ideological Density Enclosure; FM04 Platform Reservoir Trap; FM05 Compound Agent State; FM06 Dyadic Density Trap; FM07 Topological Perceptual Collapse; FM08 Knowledge Transmission Failure; FM09 Density-Gradient Structural Conflict; FM10 Civilizational Informational Stagnation. This is a synthetic analytical study and applied research module. It does not introduce new EF theorems. It is not an empirical diagnosis, policy prescription, clinical framework, diagnostic instrument, or platform design mandate. All diagnostics and measurement proposals are v0 exploratory proxies unless independently validated.