Definition
Plain language
A pattern of long stretches where almost nothing changes, broken up by sudden bursts of rapid change.
As stated in the literature
A concept from evolutionary biology (Eldredge and Gould) describing change concentrated in brief episodes separating long periods of stasis; invoked to describe iterative-inference dynamics where most token positions stay stable across refinement iterations and a few abruptly reorganize in a basin shift.
Why it matters: Recognizing that change clusters in rare bursts helps explain systems that look stuck for a long time before abruptly reorganizing.
For example, a refinement process might leave almost every part of an answer untouched for many rounds and then suddenly rework one section all at once.