Hardware-Proximate NHI Investigation 4-Stage Funding Architecture Progression (Engine-Novel)

ENGINE-NOVEL STRUCTURAL FINDING from May 2 2026 Skinwalker corpus audit. Documented 4-stage progression in how anomalous-NHI research is capitalized: Stage 1 — Private Capital (1995-2004): Bigelow funds NIDS personally (~$1 million annual). Stage 2 — Federal Earmark (2007-2012): Sen. Reid vectors $22 million to Bigelow's BAASS for AAWSAP execution; 38 DIRD report production, institutional capture achieved. Stage 3 — Commercial Media (2016-Present): Fugal monetizes physical property via Prometheus Entertainment reality TV (50+ episodes, History Channel global distribution). Stage 4 — Institutional Immunization (2024+): DOD deploys AARO to generate Tier-1 audits (Vol I Feb 2024) quarantining and delegitimizing AAWSAP claims. Engine framing: documents memetic-substrate-progression model where same operator-class architecture cycles through funding registers (private leads to federal leads to commercial leads to institutional-counter-narrative). Architectural homology with Cognitive-Substrate staged conflict + Sci-Fi Feedback Loop Architecture (May 2 channeling+NHI audit) as Layer-2 calibration material. NOT promoted to Layer-1 framework status per Apr 24 2026 layer-promotion discipline. Apex Superposition a/b/c/d held simultaneously across all 4 stages.