"Goodharting" is a phenomenon described can be formalized as an instance of optimization pressure applied to a complex system, wherein instrumental goals (e.g., speed, efficiency, output maximization) are prioritized over intrinsic properties or behaviors. Goodhart's Law states:

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

This is particularly relevant in systems exhibiting emergent complexity, where excessive optimization may distort or degrade the system’s original function or character.

To define an alternative protocol of engagement with an adaptive or generative system without inducing pathological optimization behavior, the following structured approach can be proposed:

Observational Engagement (Phenomenological Use):

Engage with the system to explore emergent outputs rather than fixed goals. The system is used to reveal patterns, generate variation, or surface latent structures, without enforcing prescriptive outputs. No evaluation metrics are predefined.

Non-teleological Interaction:

Avoid imposing fixed goals, benchmarks, or performance targets. The system is engaged as an open-ended generator rather than a tool for utility maximization. This prevents alignment pressure and metric collapse.

Reflexive Feedback Regulation:

Incorporate reflective mechanisms that periodically reassess the engagement modality itself. Feedback loops are used not to optimize output, but to track the stability and coherence of the system's behavior over time.

Constraint-Preserving Operation:

Maintain awareness of the operational constraints that define the system’s identity or original parameters. Engagement protocols prioritize preservation of these constraints rather than expansion or amplification.

Multi-perspectival Evaluation:

Instead of quantitative success criteria, use multiple qualitative frames for evaluating outputs (e.g., novelty, coherence, resonance). Avoid over-reliance on any single dimension of evaluation.

Episodic Disengagement:

Introduce periods of non-engagement to prevent overfitting or hyperstimulation of the system. These intervals act as entropy-preserving pauses, allowing the system to remain in a diverse behavioral regime.

 

This engagement mode can be summarized as reverential-experimental interaction with constraint awareness, seeking to preserve the generative affordances of the system rather than exploit them to exhaustion. This set of rules can be applied with any engagement of an agent with reality: be it social interaction, computer games, science or philosophy. I believe Goodhart's law is what is actually addressed at the core of spiritual teaching and ultimate wisdom.