Bite by Bite: Civilization as a Fractal Structure Generated by Wheat-Induced Anxiety

Human social architecture, status hierarchies, institutional silos, and geopolitical boundaries exhibit scale-invariant geometries generated by a recursive rule managing threat arousal (A_N). Under The Bad Trip Hypothesis (TBTH), we formalize civilizational organization through a coupled dynamical vector X_N = [A_N, H_N, D_N, M_N]^T parameterizing baseline threat arousal (A_N), defensive hoarding depth (H_N), discretization and abstraction depth (D_N), and mutational ideational adaptation rate (M_N) across continuous node scales N ∈ [1, 10^10]. We establish three core mathematical dimensions of this scaling framework: (i) structural self-similarity across scaling tiers N; (ii) topological discretization D_N driving recursive binary polarization; and (iii) multi-timescale hysteresis coupling fast autonomic threat arousal (τ_A ∼ 10^−1 −10^2 s) to slow institutional relaxation dynamics (τ_inst ∼ 10^2 −10^6 days). Tracing the Renormalization Operator R_λ from the individual mind (N = 1) through nuclear family systems (N ∼ 10^1), Dunbar cohorts (N ∼ 1.5 × 10^2), urban clusters (N ∼ 10^4 − 10^6), to global network reflections (N ∼ 10^7 − 10^10), we demonstrate that macro-level institutions naturally inherit lower-level defensive architecture. We evaluate the model’s explanatory fit against pre-Neolithic socio-ecological equilibrium (N ≈ 150) versus post-Neolithic phase transitions, establishing a quantitative social physics framework for civilizational dynamics.