SD-235
[paper-guardrail] Slopodar entry #6: Paper Guardrail — operational assurance without enforcement. Caught live: Weaver wrote “if I forget, this paragraph in my own file is the reminder” immediately after creating a pipeline propagation principle. Captain called it slop: “I get these assurances so often that I must conclude it is a form of slop.” The pattern: LLM creates a rule, then reflexively asserts the rule will prevent the failure it addresses — no enforcement mechanism, no test, no hook, no gate. Substitutes stating the protection for building the protection. Sister pattern to Epistemic Theatre (different register: ET performs intellectual seriousness, PG performs operational reliability). Imperative derived via Principle §3: “Build a real one” — every time the system produces “this will prevent X,” ask whether there is an enforcement mechanism or just paper. Slopodar entry filed with Captain’s quote. Severity: high.
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