Don Detrich
Author and originator of the central conceptual synthesis behind The Missing Loop.
Authorship and collaboration
Don Detrich originated the central thesis and conceptual direction, identified the connections that developed into the Missing Loop framework, and directs the argument, editorial decisions, and publication.
OpenAI language models have been substantial collaborators in research organization, source comparison, analysis, outlining, drafting, methodological refinement, technical development, and editorial quality control. They are tools and research collaborators in the practical sense, not legal authors or human researchers. Factual and interpretive responsibility remains with the author.
Why this project exists
The project asks for a more discriminating way to talk about self-improving AI. Instead of treating any self-edit as recursive self-improvement, it asks when a system's own retained history begins to change its capacity to produce future changes, and how that transition can be measured before rhetoric outruns evidence.