"Large-Language Models as a Cognitive Virus" models LLM adoption as an epidemic with a lock-in tipping point

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arXiv 2609.03344 (294 points on Hacker News) applies a viral-transmission model to LLM use, tracking transitions among uncoupled, coupled and persistently dependent users. The claim is that social transmission plus collective reinforcement can produce runaway dynamics: past a critical adoption threshold, small increases trigger population-level shifts into persistent dependence with abrupt losses in cognitive competence. The same framework yields conditions for "cognitive immunization" based on reducing transmission and preserving reversibility. It is a modeling paper, not an empirical one — treat the tipping point as a hypothesis.