Cultural Accelerometers Measure Epistemic Acceleration

Treat the stock of shared, connected knowledge as a 'proof mass' and model social change detection like a biophysical accelerometer: inertia (prior belief strength), stiffness (commitment to status quo), and viscosity (social pressure) set unavoidable trade‑offs between sensitivity and noise. The framework suggests concrete metrics and institutional design choices (including AI architecture) to detect meaningful paradigm shifts while rejecting misinformation. — Provides a measurable conceptual toolkit for policymakers, technologists, and media to assess when cultural or scientific paradigms are truly accelerating and how to design institutions and AI to respond without amplifying noise.