Research brief · October 1, 2026
Hysteron Coupling: 3 Isolated vs 3 Coupled
By Daniel Preisach
One page, one striking number: what happens when three simple switches are allowed to influence each other.
Key ideas
- Three switches that do not interact reach about 6 distinct transition graphs.
- Allow each one's threshold to shift with the others and the count jumps to more than 15,000 (van Hecke, 2021).
- Coupling does not add complexity, it multiplies it: every interaction compounds every other.
What it means for you
Your decisions are coupled the same way. That is why a profile of how you decide tells Claude far more than a list of facts about you.
This paper presents Daniel Preisach’s own work. It builds on peer-reviewed research (Preisach, 1935; van Hecke, 2021) and marks which parts are established and which are proposal.