---
slug: grain-the-rejected
title: The Rejected — Candidate Patterns That Failed to Generalize
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/grain-the-rejected
---

# The Rejected — Candidate Patterns That Failed to Generalize

## §SELF — grain-the-rejected

**What this page is:** the **graveyard** of structural-pattern candidates that were considered for the GRAIN covering set and **cut**.
**What it explains:** the denominator the convergence catalogue was missing — survivorship bias requires failed candidates, not only winners.
**Why read it:** without this page, "why eight" is revelation; with it, discovery has a visible fail surface.

### Why this page must exist

A convergence claim that lists only survivors is unfalsifiable by construction: the reader cannot see the search. This log is the proof we were *looking to fail*. Entries here are not shame; they are the rigor the catalogue owed.

### How a candidate is rejected

A candidate pattern is cut when **any** of:

1. It **fails to recur** outside one domain after attempted mapping.
2. It **reduces** to an existing family under redescription (synonym, not new structure).
3. It addresses a **non-problem** for physical systems (no instantiation).
4. Its "universality" is **designer fashion** or single-lineage synthesis without multi-domain force.

### Rejected candidates (initial ledger — append-only; never delete rows)

| ID | Candidate | Why it looked universal | Where it failed | Cut as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R01 | **Perfect hierarchy / pure trees** | Org charts, taxonomy, file systems | Real transport and knowledge graphs require **cycles and multi-parent** (anastomosis, citations); pure trees starve redundancy | Reduced → Branching + Flow networks (with cycles) |
| R02 | **Strict periodicity / pure clocks** | Planetary orbits, circadian, clocks | Living and engineered systems need **aperiodic intermittency** (avalanches, SOC); pure clocks miss edge-of-chaos dynamics | Domain-specific; residual absorbed by Waves + Bounded chaos |
| R03 | **Global optimization / omniscient planner** | Central planner, single cost minimum | No free lunch + local information; real systems are **local + multipartite** | Rejected as universal structure; Pareto/least-action stay as **local** variational tools |
| R04 | **Identity-bound authority as primitive** | ACLs, accounts, "who you are" | Confused deputy; capability security wins for model handoff | Protocol synthesis (ocaps), not grain pattern family |
| R05 | **Infinite precision / continuous continuum as structure** | Ideal fluids, real analysis | Thermal noise, quantum limits, finite sensors | Non-problem for physical grain; continuum is model, not deployable pattern |
| R06 | **Flat equality of all nodes (no scale)** | Radical egalitarianism of scale | Scale-free *and* scale-bound structures both recur; flatness alone doesn't organize flow | Failed as covering; Scale invariance remains the law-about-scale, not "no scale" |
| R07 | **Closed-system equilibrium as target** | Thermodynamic end-state | Life and tech are **far-from-equilibrium** dissipative; equilibrium is death, not pattern family for living structure | Rival to dissipative account — kept as bound, not family |
| R08 | **Single universal algorithm** | One optimizer to rule them all | Wolpert/Macready NFL | Explicitly killed by no-go; not a pattern family |
| R09 | **Fractal-as-ninth-family** | Pretty self-similarity everywhere | Redescribes **scale invariance + branching/spirals** | Reduced, not independent ninth |
| R10 | **Teleology / final cause as structure** | Purposive design language | Contradicts selection/dissipation without designer; conflicts with disconfirming edges | Rejected as structural family; may appear as language, not grain geometry |
| R11 | **Cryptographic hash as cosmic pattern** | Content addressing "everywhere" | Computing synthesis; not multi-domain physical recurrence independent of digital engineering | Synthesis / protocol lineage, not grain family |
| R12 | **Market price as eighth-plus** | Prices coordinate everything | Contested domain; fails outside exchange systems; partial map to flow networks | Domain-specific; not covering |

### How to add a rejection

Append a row: candidate name, hoped universality, failure domain, disposition (reduced / domain-specific / non-problem / killed by no-go). **Never delete** a row — this page is a retraction-adjacent ledger for *pattern search*.

### Links

- [Why eight](/a/oip-cross-pattern-structure)
- [Convergence catalogue](/a/oip-convergence-catalogue)
- [Retraction ledger](/a/grain-retractions)
- [Count discipline](/a/oip-count-discipline)
- [Objection log 9–15](/a/oip-objection-log-pass-2)

