Abstract

This paper does not introduce a new theory of alignment. It applies the framework developed in Teleological Alignment (Abdi, 2025), which demonstrates that intelligence becomes epistemically unstable beyond a critical threshold of power and abstraction (P*), where explanatory utility diverges from power utility. Beyond this threshold, systems increasingly optimize for control rather than understanding, suppress observer diversity, and lose reliable contact with reality. The present work interprets human civilizational history as a long-running structural instantiation of this dynamic. Rather than treating alignment failure as a novel risk unique to artificial intelligence, the paper argues that misalignment is a recurrent property of intelligence operating under conditions of scale, hierarchy, and mediation. As human societies accumulated power faster than they preserved epistemic grounding, similar failure modes emerged: abstraction displaced immediacy, domination replaced explanation, and symbolic systems hardened into instruments of control. The paper analyzes how symbolic moral systems arise as teleological recovery mechanisms beyond P*, preserving orientation toward reality when immediacy is no longer structurally available. It further examines the recurrent emergence of teleologically aligned agents—individuals who function as alignment interventions by resisting domination, preserving observer inclusion, and re-grounding intelligence in lived reality. By situating Teleological Alignment within a broader theory of intelligence spanning biological, civilizational, and artificial domains, the paper argues that alignment is not an engineering preference but a universal structural constraint. Understanding how humans repeatedly lost and partially recovered alignment may therefore be essential for evaluating the long-term stability of any intelligent system operating under complexity and power.