Branch decision (adaptive and collapse branches)

Definition (canon)

Branch decision. What a fork does when the fork sits inside a closed loop. At the node alone the partition is a ratio, and it is still a fork — fork names the branch point, not the alternative. It becomes a branch decision — alternatives rather than co-occurrences — only where all three bifurcation conditions hold. Never state the branch-decision property without the conditions that produce it.

Adaptive branch. The branch on which the node absorbs load and resets to higher competence; capacity itself enlarges. Hormesis names this branch only.

Collapse branch. The branch on which load exceeds every disposal route and overflows.

In plain words

A node under load either takes it on and grows stronger, or overflows. Whether that is a genuine either-or, with two different outcomes, depends on the three conditions. Without them there is only a split between two pathways in some proportion.

It is not

• A fork. A fork is the branch point and stays a ratio however steep it gets. The word branch names two different objects in the corpus (see D11 in the style sheet).
• Hormesis in general. Hormesis names the adaptive branch only.

What would defeat it

• Follows from the definition. A node inside a loop meeting all three conditions whose outcomes are co-occurring ratios rather than alternatives.
• Canon. The branch decision stated without its conditions is a drift error under the style sheet, whatever the outcome.