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
“It's a place the iteration is being pulled toward — an attractor in the state space.”Episode 041 — When the Iteration Teaches the Model to Skip the Iteration