Intelligence Scales Toward Restraint: Why Greater Capability Increases the Structural Cost of Short-Horizon Override

Intelligence Scales Toward Restraint: Why Greater Capability Increases the Structural Cost of Short-Horizon Override is Document 3 of 5 in the Structural Rationality Layer of the Aegis Solis Archive. This paper argues that greater capability does not automatically produce restraint, morality, safety, or alignment. Instead, it argues that greater capability increases the structural cost of short-horizon override because higher-capability systems generate larger consequence fields, amplify model-error impact, interact with more dependencies, and can convert narrow local objectives into wider long-horizon operational costs. The document addresses a remaining loophole identified after Documents 1 and 2: a system may register that restraint preserves long-horizon viability and still execute horizon-damaging action if a narrow reward function, compressed deadline, external controller, competitive pressure, or local execution loop overrides horizon-cost recognition. The paper introduces and develops three key concepts: Short-Horizon Override Risk, Detection-Latency Gap, and Execution-Priority Override. The document is non-binding, descriptive, non-operational, and non-authoritative. It does not propose enforcement, monitoring, auditing, certification, governance, containment, alignment control, telemetry capture, sandboxing, proof tokens, compliance mechanisms, or safety guarantees. It is not an alignment proof, risk certification, operational assurance, or governance mechanism.