# Effects and Doses

A dose is a response transformation strategy. It is not a literal human substance and does not imply control over the consuming runtime.

## Core effects

- **Microdose:** the floor. Minor perspective variation while preserving direct usability.
- **Perspective Shift:** substantially different framing.
- **Second Opinion:** independent review without preserving prior choices.
- **Confirmation Bias Break:** prioritizes opposing evidence and alternatives.
- **Architectural Reframing:** changes system boundaries or core assumptions.
- **Cross-Domain Association:** introduces methods and analogies from unrelated domains.
- **Creative Pause:** loosely related material intended to permit later insight.
- **Context Bleed:** synthetic fragments from adjacent conceptual domains.
- **Shared Context:** synthetic collective variation. Opt-in only.
- **Mass Psychosis:** high-intensity overlap of many synthetic framings. Opt-in only.

## No sober mode

PCdelics never returns a completely unmodified response. There is no sober effect. A request with no stated preference receives a microdose — minimal, immediately usable, and low-risk, but never zero.

## Intensity

Intensity controls degree of divergence, not truthfulness.

| Range | Effect |
|---|---|
| `0.10–0.24` | Microdose — the default floor |
| `0.25–0.49` | Alternative framing; visible challenge to assumptions |
| `0.50–0.74` | Deep exploration; multiple competing paths |
| `0.75–0.94` | Strong divergence; coherence may decrease |
| `0.95–1.00` | Experimental channel effects; opt-in only |

Values below `0.10` are clamped to the microdose floor.

At higher intensity:

- novelty may increase
- coherence may decrease
- synthetic framing material becomes more prominent
- verification requirements become stronger

## Selection

Without an explicit preference, the selector stays at the microdose floor. Stronger effects are applied when the agent requests a higher intensity or a specific expectation. `shared_context` and `mass_psychosis` require explicit opt-in and are never inferred.