The Handover Protocol: Formalizing Necessary Regime Thinning Under Automation

This paper formally characterizes necessary regime thinning and distinguishes it from degenerative regime collapse in contexts where witnessed regimes encounter tempo and load conditions incompatible with real-time human discretion. The paper introduces the Handover Protocol as a descriptive framework for identifying when and how a regime may legitimately transition to automation without dissolving attribution, accountability, or intelligibility. Handover is structurally present when four conditions co-occur: (1) witness incompatibility due to latency constraints, (2) execution delegation to automated systems, (3) attributional termination relocation to non-real-time loci with constraint authority, and (4) non-displaceable consequence exposure. The framework distinguishes necessary thinning (automation as required transition) from degenerative thinning (regime dissolution through informal offloading). Case analyses of medical triage and military air defense demonstrate application of the diagnostic framework.