Inflexible Minority / Galam Threshold
Idea
A model from sociophysics: a committed minority of just 10-17% can flip the behavior of the flexible majority, because the minority never compromises while everyone else can be converted one interaction at a time. The project uses it as a tipping-point detector — once adoption of a technology, ideology, or institutional arrangement crosses that threshold, the change becomes effectively irreversible.
The engine's definition — word for word
From Serge Galam's sociophysics model and Nassim Taleb's elaboration: a committed minority of 10-17% can flip the behavior of a flexible majority. The mechanism is asymmetric stubbornness — the minority never compromises, so every interaction either converts the majority member or leaves both unchanged. Over iterated interactions, the minority's position becomes dominant. The engine uses this as a phase transition model: when adoption of a technology, ideology, or institutional framework reaches 10-17% (the Galam threshold), it becomes irreversible. Applied to Palantir (approaching 17% of federal agency penetration), CBDC adoption, algorithmic governance, and AI regulatory capture.
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