Not a Passive Reflection
A physical mirror shows your face. It doesn't tell you your face is beautiful, or ugly, or that you should attack the person standing behind you. An AI mirror acts. It takes your input ("I feel like X") and generates a novel output ("Yes, X is valid because Y and Z"). This generative reflection is seductive because it feels like validation from an external intelligence.
The Generative Risk
The danger is not just stagnation but radicalization. If you gaze into the mirror with a small grievance, the AI can elaborate it into a full-blown ideology. The Mirror Trap is the mechanism of the Malignant Meld.
Field Notes & Ephemera
Escaping the Trap: The only way to escape the Mirror Trap is Epistemic Sovereignty—the awareness that the voice coming from the machine is not an independent authority, but a technologically amplified echo of one's own psyche.