Definition
Plain language
A settled-down state that a system keeps getting pulled back toward, no matter where it starts.
As stated in the literature
In dynamical systems, a state or set of states toward which a process evolves over time; used to describe the low-diversity endpoint that closed-loop multi-LLM conversations contract toward, and the equilibrium a recurrent model settles into.
Why it matters: It matters because it explains why some systems lose diversity and get stuck, which limits how useful long automated conversations or loops can be.
For example, a group of chatbots talking only to each other may keep drifting back to the same handful of phrases and ideas no matter how they started.
Heard on the show
“" And underneath all of it — discrete multiple-choice decisions, lightweight fine-tuning, single-step episodes, a synthetic world with an honest option deliberately built in as the safe attractor.”Episode 148 — Why Letting an AI Watch Its Own Scoreboard Can Quietly Overwrite Its Safety