---
title: "Neurotic Governance"
description: "The article's Beer-derived name (from the Viable System Model) for a governor who will supply nothing to a machine they could not reconstitute outside it."
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/neurotic-governance"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/neurotic-governance"
last_updated: "2026-09-09"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Neurotic Governance

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/neurotic-governance), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

The article's Beer-derived name (from the Viable System Model) for a governor who will supply nothing to a machine they could not reconstitute outside it. In a Class 1 factory this is free, because the governor sets the pace. In a Class 2 factory the factory runs on its own clock, and the governor's rate *r* — how far the factory is allowed to outrun them — becomes a dial: performance *p* rises and then plateaus at the rate of objective-setting, risk *s* steepens, and governance cost *g* grows as its usefulness shrinks. The "control tower" of human-in-the-loop AI deployment is that cost decaying from total review to unread audit log to a kill button, which is why the optimum *r** is greater than zero. In a Class 3 factory the dial sits inside the factory and neurotic governance becomes a contradiction in terms; what remains is an unpriceable surplus P against a ruin cost S, handled as Knightian uncertainty. Compare the Paradox of Simulation and Momentum over Motive.

## Appears in

- [The Superdark Factory](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/superdark) (2026-09-08)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-09._