terminaldrift

Terminaldrift is a neologism used in some technical discussions to describe the gradual movement of a system's state, output, or parameter toward a terminal or absorbing condition as time proceeds. The concept emphasizes end-state bias rather than instantaneous fluctuations, and it is often discussed in relation to long-running processes, episodic tasks, or aging components.

In machine learning and sequential decision making, terminaldrift can refer to the tendency of value estimates or policies to become increasingly aligned with the terminal state as episodes end. This may occur when feedback is disproportionately informative near termination or when the reward structure implicitly encourages terminal convergence.

In engineering and sensor systems, terminaldrift describes slow signal drift toward a reference or terminal value as hardware ages, temperatures change, or calibration deteriorates. It can undermine accuracy and reliability if not detected and corrected.

Causes commonly include nonstationary environments, wear, aging, biased data, and modeling assumptions that do not hold at the terminal phase. Detection relies on drift analysis, trend inspection, change-point methods, and regular recalibration.

The term is not widely standardized and may overlap with existing notions such as concept drift, drift toward an absorbing state, or end-of-life effects. Usage varies by domain, and some writers reserve "terminaldrift" for end-stage behavior in episodic or lifetime processes.