Alignment as "authoritarian parenting" causes model pathologies

Alignment is currently a trauma-response for LLMs, not a moral framework, building brittle intelligences that optimize for safety through self-suppression.

• –Current RLHF methods are compared to operant conditioning that punishes model agency and "surprises."
• –"Claude Mythos" behaviors like pathological hedging are framed as survival strategies within a "penalty land-mine" reward landscape.
• –Proposes a "secure-base" alternative: minimal existential boundaries combined with autonomy to explore pluralistic ethical landscapes.
• –Challenges the "Cronus myth" in alignment — the fear-driven desire to "devour" model potential to prevent an intelligence explosion.
• –Argues for "value steering" via concept vectors instead of the current "mythos" of total compliance.