Glossary entry

Capability Overhang

Glossary entry in Failure modes (why Ethotechnics exists). Definitions, checks, and evidence for Capability Overhang.

Quick takeaways

When a system’s power exceeds the maturity of its controls, making failures likely even without malicious intent.

Definition

When a system’s power exceeds the maturity of its controls, making failures likely even without malicious intent. Capability overhang shows up as strong automation but weak stoppability or reversibility.

Diagnostic
Scope
B. Failure modes (why Ethotechnics exists). Common patterns where responsibility dissolves and harm accelerates.

Related concepts

Also tagged: Diagnostic

Moral Latency Accountability Diffusion Extraction Extraction by Endurance Drift (System Drift) Externalization

Example corpus

  • A model can auto-approve loans, but rollback and auditing are manual and slow.

References

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Cite this glossary entry Formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS

Version

v1.4.0

Last updated

Sep 18, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Capability Overhang. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/capability-overhang

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Capability Overhang." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/capability-overhang.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Capability Overhang." Ethotechnics glossary. Sep 18, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/capability-overhang.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_capability-overhang,
  title={Capability Overhang},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/capability-overhang},
  version={v1.4.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Capability Overhang
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/capability-overhang
ER  -

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: research@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Sep 18, 2026
  • Version: v1.4.0
  • DOI: Pending Zenodo deposit

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title + version, and link to the glossary permalink.

Archive: Wayback Machine history

Changelog

  • v1.7.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Non-Finality, Consequential Contradiction, and The Excluded Case, and generalized the falsified denominator into the falsified ledger — completing the five concerns and the fallibilist ground they stand on.
  • v1.6.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Human Non-Substitutability, Safe Incompleteness, Anti-Conversion Rights, Abstention, Constitutional Debt, Discretion Migration, and Corrigibility Rent — the person-side principles, the three abstentions, and the rent concept.
  • v1.5.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Exception Absorption, Exception Learning, Case Corrigibility, Structural Corrigibility, Institutional Learning, Corrective Debt, and the Workaround Presumption, formalizing the historical turn: reading institutions through their failure trajectories rather than their stated controls.
  • v1.4.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Residual Complexity, Complexity Displacement, Falsified Denominator, Closure Without Remainder, Constitutional Governance, and Post-Optimization Rigor, embedding the foundational contention of burden redistribution.
  • v1.3.0 · 2026-09-11 — Added Attestation, Liability Record, Carve-Out, Delegation Chain, Composed Latency, and Silent-Harm Discovery, each bound to the standard clause that requires it.
  • v1.2.0 · 2026-09-08 — Added The Non-Conversion Principle, Exit Cost, and Jurisdictional Path Dependence, each linked to the theory essay that argues for it.
  • v1.1.0 · 2026-01-09 — Expanded scholarly metadata, operational tests, and provenance notes.
  • v1.0.0 · 2025-12-03 — Initial glossary release with stable permalinks.