Files
el/engram/spec/grounded-edge-propagation/LEDGER.md
T
bigmerge e239f2894c docs: carry the correspondence corrections, because a stale doc builds the wrong thing
The docs described a mind made of subsystems — a grounding subsystem, a wonder
manifest, a dreamer on a beat, faculties as arguments to one call. Each of those
is a supervisor invented for something that should be a property of the
substrate, and two of the documents carrying them are load-bearing for a build
agent: cognitive-architecture.design.md says "a build agent executes from this
doc", and tools/api-reshape/README.md marks the refuted shapes PROVEN on a live
clone.

Corrections carried, per lang/spec/correspondence-and-censorship.md (PR #149)
and lang/spec/runtime-ownership.md:

- Grounding is not a subsystem — it IS the edge weight. grounded-by as a
  relation type should not exist; grounding is a property of a relation, not a
  relation between nodes. Never computed on demand.
- Faculties are operations, not parameters. reason changes the estimate, induce
  changes the parameters, abduce changes the structure — a write, which
  GeoGradient cannot express. A write is not a parameter of a read.
- Wonder is the boundary, not a manifest. Curiosity is wonder crystallized at a
  nucleation site: one thing at two phases. Removed wonder from the operator
  table in AGENTS.md.
- Consolidation is ambient, not scheduled. A brain has no cron job. The presence
  of a ticker is the diagnostic.
- co_registration is deprecated — it averaged a per-edge property into a region
  scalar, so opposing sites cancelled. GeoEdge.discord replaces it. Nothing new
  may read it.
- In an immutable substrate, any mechanism that refuses a write is either
  redundant with immutability or an epistemic constraint misfiled as a
  protective one.

The two design docs are marked superseded-in-part with the refutation at the
point each claim is made, not rewritten. Preserving what was argued down is the
point of an immutable record.

Also measured and corrected while verifying the above: engram/README.md
documented a Rust engram-core crate on sled with "flat cosine scan until scale
demands HNSW" — there is no Rust in engram/ and HNSW is the index; lang/releases/
no longer exists, so both README.md and AGENTS.md pointed at a deleted path for
the authored runtime; language.md listed the engram_* and http_* runtimes as
stubs. Added language.md §20 for geometry-as-a-value, realizers and transduce
(#144), which had landed with no spec coverage.

Documentation only. No .c, .h, or .el file is touched.
2026-08-16 15:49:44 -05:00

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# Task #50 — Edge-aware, dream-coupled consolidation with GROUNDED EDGE-PROPAGATION
**Status:** built + proven on a clone; **GATED, not promoted.**
**Do not promote as designed** — see the block below.
**Date:** 2026-08-15 · **Worktree:** `agent-a6577c8211c332c5b` (isolated).
> # ⚠ DO NOT PROMOTE — SUPERSEDED IN PART (2026-08-16)
>
> This work is gated, which limits the blast radius, and its measurements are
> retained. But four of its structural commitments were refuted the day after it
> was written. Authority: `lang/spec/correspondence-and-censorship.md`. Read it
> before any promotion decision.
>
> | this ledger | corrected to |
> |---|---|
> | grounding is an **append-only event ring on the node** (`GepGrounding`), propagated by a dedicated `engram_ground_propagate()` | **grounding is not a subsystem and not a per-node structure — it IS the edge weight.** One quantity. A relation that keeps holding up strengthens; one that stops corresponding decays. That is not analogous to grounding, it *is* grounding. The ledger is **half-right**: it correctly rejects the scalar (§(a) "never a scalar"), but then builds a *second* structure beside the weight instead of recognising the weight |
> | the soul invokes propagation over HTTP, **`POST /api/ground/propagate`** | **grounding is never computed on demand.** An operation may *read* the grounding of a path; computing-and-writing a score makes reads write, which is the `eg_vindex_sync` defect (`lang/spec/runtime-ownership.md` §2) one level up. A POST also puts a supervisor back in — something *outside* deciding when Neuron consolidates |
> | **`GEP_BELIEFS_PER_BEAT = 512`** beliefs per beat, salience-ordered, the rest next beat | **the presence of a ticker is the diagnostic.** Consolidation is ambient, not scheduled — a brain has no cron job. A per-beat quota is a rate-limiter on an intrinsic rhythm that was replaced by an external clock. Measured 2026-08-16: consolidation already has **ten implementations**; this would be the eleventh |
> | grounding **mirrored onto `confidence` each beat** so downstream reads never speak above it | **confidence is derived, therefore never stored.** Confidence is high grounding *and* low volatility. Storing it separately is precisely how `confidence: 0.5` ends up sitting beside a zero vector, asserting something nothing computed |
>
> **What survives, and it is the valuable half:** the insight in memory `69b8babe`
> that *memory-consolidation and staying-yourself are one physics* — forming a
> memory and grading a belief are the same operation, not two passes. That is
> right, and it is stronger than this ledger's own framing: they are not two passes
> of one beat, they are **one event**. When neurons fire together the synapse
> changes — one physical event, not "fire, then write." No supervisor reads the
> weight, compares it to a threshold, and decides to persist. **Potentiation *is*
> the firing**, so there is no sampling rate and no `BELIEFS_PER_BEAT` to tune. A
> relation changes in exactly two ways, neither requiring observation on a clock:
> by **use** (an event — there is no interval during which something happened
> unnoticed, because the event is what happening consists of) and by **decay** (a
> pure function of the last recorded point and elapsed time — **analytic**, known
> in closed form between any two versions).
>
> The generating error, named: modelling every property as requiring a process, and
> every process as requiring an agent. Ownership needed an owner, grounding needed
> a grounder, persistence needed a recorder, change needed a sampler. **Properties,
> not processes.**
Grounding mechanism designed with Will (memory `9e09a59f`, refining
`1a861007`). This is the HOW for #50.
---
## (a) How grounded edge-propagation integrates into the dream/consolidation cycle
The beat already exists. `neuron/awareness.el` runs a heartbeat (~every
`beat_ms`); each beat calls `hebb_consolidate()` — which drains the self-formed
Hebbian associations out of the fast in-process store and writes them, over the
threshold `ENGRAM_HEBB_LINK_MIN`, into the durable engram (`:8742`) — and then
`emit_heartbeat()`.
Grounded edge-propagation slots into the **same beat, immediately after
consolidation** (awareness.el line 12861288):
```
hebb_consolidate() // lay down the tethers (edges) that cleared threshold
ground_propagate() // <-- NEW: grade beliefs ALONG those tethers
emit_heartbeat() // report gep_* gauges beside hebb_*
```
This ordering is the point. Consolidation lays down the wiring; propagation
grades the beliefs along it, in the same breath. Memory `69b8babe`:
memory-consolidation and staying-yourself are one physics — forming a memory and
grading a belief are the same gravity run in two passes of one beat.
The propagation runs **inside the engram** as the native
`engram_ground_propagate()` over the durable flat node/edge arrays (the store
the consolidated edges just landed in). The soul invokes it over HTTP
(`POST /api/ground/propagate`) and folds the returned `gep_*` telemetry into the
heartbeat stream next to `hebb_cands / hebb_mass / hebb_edges`.
**Bounded by construction** (per the live-graph reality — 70.7% of nodes
isolated, connected core ~28%, hub first-hop fan-out in the thousands):
- **1-hop only.** No BFS spreading activation — a belief is graded from its
DIRECT grounded neighbors, so there is no per-hop breadth explosion.
- **Beam-capped** at `GEP_MAX_CORR = 256` corroborators per belief.
- **Salience-ordered, `GEP_BELIEFS_PER_BEAT = 512`** beliefs per beat; the rest
next beat. Work per beat is O(beliefs × degree), hard-bounded.
- **Isolated / starved beliefs** are counted and surfaced (`gep_isolated`,
`gep_starved`) as an interoceptive sparse-region signal for the
edge-formation / embedding pass (#20). #50 CONSUMES edges; it does not form
them. A belief with no grounded neighbor has nothing to tether to — correct
per the anti-delusion gravity law (`0b15017c`), not a gap.
---
## (b) The implementation
Represented faithfully to the spec — **grounding is a Hebbian-weighted
collection over time, never a scalar.**
- **Grounding = an append-only event ring** on the node (`GepGrounding`),
structurally parallel to the ACT-R base-level access ring already in
`EngramNode` (`access_ts[K]`). Each event is `{ts, sign±, mag, corroborator
signature}`. Append-only, supersede-not-delete; events aged out of the ring
are counted (`older_count`), never faked away.
- **Standing is DERIVED, recency-weighted, never stored** —
`standing = clamp(GEP_BASE + Σ_events sign·mag·age^(-D), 0, 1)`, exactly the
ACT-R base-level shape `ln Σ t^-d` (`ENGRAM_BLL_D = 0.5`) but sign-carrying so
LTD subtracts. Memory `1a861007`: the collection is primary, the standing is
its emergent aggregate. Mirrored onto `confidence` each beat so downstream
reads (verifier #43, realizer calibration `0041d917`) never speak above the
grounding.
- **Update = LTP/LTD with a threshold.** Per belief, gather corroborators along
incident edges, weighted by `edge.weight` (the Hebbian weight) × the
neighbor's own standing. **Anti-delusion gravity:** only neighbors already
`≥ GEP_LIKELY_MIN` may corroborate — grounding flows FROM the grounded core.
- **Convergent INDEPENDENT corroboration** is the driver. Independence is
enforced by **union-find over the corroborator set**: two corroborators are
the same independent source if they are the same node, reached by multiple
edges, or linked to each other (an echo chain / shared derivation). Support is
summed **per independent component** (max-magnitude member), and the threshold
gate requires BOTH a mass floor (`pos ≥ GEP_THETA`) AND an independence-count
floor (`n_independent ≥ GEP_N_MIN`). The count gate is the guard against one
node echoed N times.
- **Sub-threshold is transient.** Support present but below threshold →
`subthreshold_hits++`, no durable event, no lasting shift (Will's exact spec).
- **Graduation / decay.** Cross up → LTP event appended → standing climbs
`conjecture → likely → grounded`. Contradiction past threshold → LTD →
`grounded → likely → conjecture`. Nothing latches; withdraw support and the
collection ages and relaxes (`271f1163`, nothing is settled).
### Files
| File | Role |
|---|---|
| `gep_core.h` | The mechanism. Pure C, libm only (own-the-core). Single source of truth: `GepGrounding`, `gep_standing`, `gep_append`, union-find independence, `gep_propagate_node`, `gep_beat`. |
| `gep_proof.c` | Self-contained proof harness — builds the three scenarios, prints raw before/after. |
| `engram_ground_propagate.staged.c` | GATED runtime native. Wires the SAME `gep_core.h` primitives to the live `EngramStore` (adj cache, flat arrays). Splice plan + relation→polarity + belief gate. Compiles only when spliced (verified: every runtime symbol it references — `engram_adj_rebuild`, `adj_from_len`, `engram_find_node_index`, `ENGRAM_LAYER_SAFETY`, `istr_contains`, … — exists in the release runtime). |
| `awareness.beat.patch.el` | GATED beat hook — `ground_propagate()` + the insert between `hebb_consolidate()` and `emit_heartbeat()`. |
| `server.route.patch.el` | GATED route — `POST /api/ground/propagate`. |
### Constants
`BASE=0.10 LIKELY_MIN=0.34 GROUNDED_MIN=0.66 N_MIN=3 THETA=0.30 D=0.5`
(`N_MIN` parameterizes Will's "13 adjacent things" — the count threshold is a
knob; 3 here for a crisp proof.)
---
## (c) PROOF LEDGER — raw grounding before/after
Deterministic. Build `cc -std=c11 -O2 -o gep_proof gep_proof.c -lm`, run
`./gep_proof` (full transcript in `PROOF_OUTPUT.txt`).
### (a) STRENGTHEN — convergent independent corroboration graduates a conjecture
| beat | event | pos_mass (n_indep) | action | standing before → after | band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 independent grounded corroborators | 0.4050 (3) | **LTP** | 0.1000 → **0.4842** | conjecture → **likely** ⬆ |
| 2 | neighborhood grows to 5 | 0.6750 (5) | **LTP** | 0.1496 → **0.7379** | conjecture → **grounded** ⬆ |
| 3 | support sustained (5) | 0.6750 (5) | LTP | 0.2110 → 0.7993 | grounded (sustained) |
| 4 | corroboration withdrawn (+10min) | 0.0000 (0) | isolated | 0.1612 → 0.1612 | relaxing |
| 5 | still withdrawn (+1h) | — | isolated | 0.1263 | relaxing |
| 6 | still withdrawn (+4h) | — | isolated | 0.1130 | → conjecture |
Grounding grew **on its own** past threshold and graduated conjecture → likely →
grounded, then **relaxed** once independent support stopped. Living, not a
latched flag.
### (b) DECAY — convergent independent contradiction erodes a grounded belief
| beat | event | neg_mass (n_indep) | action | standing before → after | band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | seed (prior LTP) | — | — | **0.9500** | grounded |
| 1 | 3 independent contradictions | 0.5400 (3) | **LTD** | 0.9500 → **0.4570** | grounded → **likely** ⬇ |
| 2 | contradiction broadens to 5 | 0.9000 (5) | **LTD** | 0.1461 → **0.0000** | conjecture ⬇ |
| 34 | contradiction sustained (5) | 0.9000 (5) | LTD | 0.0000 | conjecture |
Grounding decayed grounded → likely → conjecture under accreting independent
contradiction. The door never shut — history is retained (the event ring keeps
growing), the belief stays falsifiable in both directions.
### (c) INDEPENDENCE GUARD — the load-bearing property
Identical fan-in (N=5), identical edge weight (0.30), identical corroborator
standing (~0.90). **The only difference is whether the five are independent.**
| sub-case | topology | pos_mass | **n_indep** | action | standing 0.1000 → |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **C1** | 5 DISTINCT, no inter-links | 1.3500 | **5** | **LTP** | **0.9741 (grounded)** ⬆ |
| **C2** | 5 mutually-linked (echo of one source) | 0.2700 | **1** | sub-threshold | 0.1000 (unchanged) |
| **C3** | 1 node reached by 5 parallel edges | 0.2700 | **1** | sub-threshold | 0.1000 (unchanged) |
Same raw fan-in, opposite outcome. Union-find collapses the echoes to a single
independent component; the count gate (`n_indep ≥ N_MIN`) then refuses them.
**Circular self-reinforcement cannot manufacture grounding** — a conjecture can
only be grounded by evidence that is genuinely independent of itself.
---
**RAILS honored:** isolated worktree; built/proven on a clone; the live soul
(`:8742` / `:7770`) untouched; no fight with the cutover (built against current
release source; staged native rebases cleanly onto it); no new libraries
(libm only); identity keystones untouched. **Not promoted** — gated artifact +
ledger for the main loop to sequence.