Inverse IFS Note

Status: Working Note Scope: IFS as a constrained toy model for trace-to-generator reconstruction. Epistemic status: Methodological framing; no claim that all images are fractals. Related files: - simulation-models/emergent-dynamics/iterated-function-systems/README.md - theory/emergence/generative-form-systems.md - theory/emergence/trace-to-generator.md Failure conditions: - Claiming every image has a compact IFS explanation. - Ignoring approximation error and identifiability limits.

Forward direction is straightforward: choose contractive maps and iterate. Inverse direction is harder: given an image trace, search for map sets that approximate it under explicit constraints.

This is useful because it isolates a core asymmetry: - generator → trace is easy to execute, - trace → generator is typically a constrained, underdetermined search.