---
slug: "StoppingRule"
name: "StoppingRule"
type: "Strategy"
layer: "Mind"
ref: "StoppingRule#9a1d"
sema_id: "sema:StoppingRule#mh:SHA-256:9a1d4616af79fa4b654e36ec26704887ff8f8ac246c1bf71be5207948aa863fc"
tags: ["Mind","Strategy"]
updated: 2026-11-11
mindscape: "origin-of-risk"
index_url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/index.json
url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/StoppingRule/
related: ["ExogenousStress","FractionalMetaModel"]
---

# StoppingRule

Stop integrating stressor handling into a design once it survives a fresh round of unseen simulated stressors, or once further integration costs more than it buys; tested by experiment, not proven from a probability distribution

Layer: Mind · Category: Strategy

## Mechanism

To make a design robust without predicting the future, imagine many possible [ExogenousStress](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/ExogenousStress.md) events, including absurd ones, and change the design so it survives each, integrating the changes into one structure. The question is when to stop. A statistical stopping rule assumes a distribution and stops when estimates are accurate enough; here no probabilities are assigned, so that rule cannot apply. Instead, after integrating one round, test the design against a new round of unseen simulated stressors. Complex systems tend to settle into a small number of stable states that each survive many different inputs, so a design that survives enough stressors starts surviving ones it has never met: it has generalised, or reached criticality. When most of a fresh round is survived, stop. Cost is the second dimension: integration stops earlier if adding more costs more than it protects, and building partly integrated functions, as a [FractionalMetaModel](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/FractionalMetaModel.md) does, lowers that cost so the generalisation point can actually be reached.

## Invariants

- No probability is assigned to stressors; the rule is checked by experiment
- Stopping is signalled by survival of stressors not used in the design
- Integration cost is weighed alongside generalisation

## Preconditions

- Stressors can be simulated and the design's survival of each can be judged

## Failure modes

- Stopping after the stressors used in design are survived, without testing unseen ones
- Ignoring integration cost so the process never reaches a usable design
- Re-introducing probability estimates and missing possible but unestimable stressors

## Builds on

- [ExogenousStress](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/ExogenousStress.md) (Physics; References)
- [FractionalMetaModel](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/FractionalMetaModel.md) (Mind; References)

## Used by

—

## Identity

- Sema ID: `sema:StoppingRule#mh:SHA-256:9a1d4616af79fa4b654e36ec26704887ff8f8ac246c1bf71be5207948aa863fc`
- Ref: `StoppingRule#9a1d`

## Links

- [Pattern page](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/StoppingRule/)
- [View in the interactive graph](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/#StoppingRule)
- [JSON](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/StoppingRule.json)
- [Index of all patterns](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/index.json)