Authority Taxonomy: Hierarchical Trust Structure for Governed Observations

Mechanism

The taxonomy is a hierarchical trust structure defined by a deploying authority for an operational domain. A consuming operating unit's cognitive architecture evaluates each received observation against this governance-configurable taxonomy. At each level, the taxonomy specifies four things. First, a behavioral-response mapping defines the response a consuming unit produces upon receipt of an observation at that level, selected from substrate-condition treatment, mandatory-mutation treatment, high-confidence-observation treatment, advisory-observation treatment, or untrusted-proposal treatment. Second, a mutation-admission specification defines whether an observation at that level is eligible for injection as a mutation into the consuming unit's autonomous planning graph. Third, an evidential-weight specification assigns a weight to observations at that level for consumption by the composite admissibility evaluator. Fourth, a supersession specification defines whether an observation at that level supersedes or preempts conflicting observations from lower levels of the taxonomy.

The taxonomy supports arbitrary depth and is tailorable to the operational domain. In a roadway domain, the levels include a regulatory-infrastructure authority assigned to devices installed and credentialed by national, state, or municipal transportation authorities; an emergency-preemptive authority assigned to devices deployed by credentialed emergency services; an operational authority assigned to devices operated by local jurisdictions or facility operators; an advisory authority assigned to registered entities contributing spatial information without directing autonomous behavior; and a no-authority level assigned to devices without a valid governance credential. The mechanism is not limited to any specific number of levels, any specific set of level names, or any specific operational domain; any governance-policy-defined hierarchy of credentialed authorities is within scope.

Each governed observation carries an authority credential per the governed mesh protocol. The authority credential encodes at minimum an issuing-authority identifier, a scope specification of the issuing authority's scope, and a temporal-validity window, bound to the emitting device through a governance-credentialed cryptographic attestation. A consuming unit admits an observation only when the credential is valid and certifies authority within a scope that covers the observation, and it then treats the observation according to the level's behavioral-response mapping rather than as a binary valid-or-invalid message consumed by a simple authentication check.

The taxonomy supports dynamic authority escalation and de-escalation, wherein an entity operating at a first authority level is temporarily elevated to a second authority level under governance-policy-defined escalation conditions. The escalation credential specifies the escalation conditions, a maximum duration of the escalation, a geographic or logical scope within which the escalation applies, and the de-escalation conditions under which the escalation terminates. Each escalation event, each de-escalation event, and each operation performed under an escalation is recorded in the observation lineage. The taxonomy also supports cross-authority boundary translation, wherein a governance-credentialed boundary agent maps an observation from a first authority taxonomy of a first operational domain to an equivalent observation in a second authority taxonomy of a second operational domain.

Operating Parameters

Each authority credential carries a scope specification of the issuing authority's scope and a temporal-validity window. An observation is admitted only when its credential is valid and certifies authority within a scope that covers the observation; an attempt to consume a credential outside its scope or validity window is not admitted. The scope and the temporal-validity field travel with the credential rather than residing in deployment configuration, so the same admissibility evaluation applies regardless of where the observation is received.

The behavioral-response mapping at each level selects one of the defined treatments: substrate-condition treatment, mandatory-mutation treatment, high-confidence-observation treatment, advisory-observation treatment, or untrusted-proposal treatment. The level chosen governs how aggressively the consuming unit's cognitive architecture acts on the observation. An observation at a level whose mapping is advisory-observation treatment, for example, informs the consuming unit without directing its autonomous behavior, while an observation at a level whose mapping is mandatory-mutation treatment is treated as a directive.

The mutation-admission specification at each level determines whether an observation may be injected as a mutation into the consuming unit's autonomous planning graph. Levels eligible for mutation admission can alter the consuming unit's plan; levels that are not eligible are consumed as evidence only. This is a per-level parameter set by the deploying authority, not a global switch.

The evidential-weight specification assigns a weight to observations at each level for consumption by the composite admissibility evaluator. The supersession specification defines whether an observation at a level supersedes or preempts conflicting observations from lower levels, with the supersession determination evaluated by the composite admissibility evaluator and recorded in the lineage of each affected consumer.

Escalation is parameterized through the escalation credential, which specifies the escalation conditions, a maximum duration, a geographic or logical scope within which the escalation applies, and the de-escalation conditions under which it terminates. Each escalation event, each de-escalation event, and each operation performed under an escalation is recorded in the observation lineage, which permits deterministic reconstruction of the observation's provenance.

Alternative Embodiments

In a roadway embodiment, the taxonomy levels include a regulatory-infrastructure authority assigned to devices installed and credentialed by national, state, or municipal transportation authorities; an emergency-preemptive authority assigned to devices deployed by credentialed emergency services; an operational authority assigned to devices operated by local jurisdictions or facility operators; an advisory authority assigned to registered entities contributing spatial information without directing autonomous behavior; and a no-authority level assigned to devices without a valid governance credential. Each level maps to a behavioral response through the same cognitive-architecture mechanism.

In a defense embodiment, the taxonomy comprises levels including a theater-command authority, a division authority, a brigade authority, a battalion authority, a company authority, and an individual-operator authority. The hierarchy mirrors the chain of command, and the supersession specification at each level governs how a higher-echelon observation preempts a conflicting observation from a lower echelon.

In a healthcare embodiment, the taxonomy comprises levels including an attending-physician authority, a resident-physician authority, a nurse authority, and an orderly authority. The behavioral-response mapping at each level determines how a consuming unit's cognitive architecture treats an observation originating from that clinical role.

In a warehouse or port embodiment, the taxonomy comprises levels including a facility-operations authority, a zone-supervisor authority, a shift-lead authority, and an individual-operator authority. As in the other domains, the number of levels and the set of level names are not fixed; any governance-policy-defined hierarchy of credentialed authorities is within scope.

The taxonomy supports dynamic authority escalation and de-escalation across domains, wherein an entity operating at a first authority level is temporarily elevated to a second authority level under governance-policy-defined escalation conditions, the escalation credential bounding the conditions, maximum duration, scope, and de-escalation conditions of the elevation.

Where observations cross operational domains, cross-authority boundary translation maps an observation from a first authority taxonomy to an equivalent observation in a second authority taxonomy through a governance-credentialed boundary agent, so that an observation credentialed under one domain's hierarchy can be consumed within another domain's hierarchy without flattening either taxonomy.

Composition

The taxonomy composes with the composite admissibility evaluator: the level of an observation's signing credential supplies the evidential-weight input to the evaluator, alongside the supersession determination and the consuming unit's governance policy. An evaluator that weights a regulatory-infrastructure or theater-command level highly and an advisory level lightly, and that lets a higher level supersede a conflicting lower-level observation, produces structurally different decisions than an evaluator that treats all signed messages homogeneously without authority-taxonomy semantics.

The taxonomy composes with the behavioral-response mapping so that the level of an observation's authority, not merely its signature validity, determines the treatment the consuming unit's cognitive architecture applies, from substrate-condition treatment through untrusted-proposal treatment. It composes with the mutation-admission specification so that only observations from levels eligible for mutation admission may be injected into the autonomous planning graph. It composes with the observation lineage by writing each level evaluation, each supersession determination, and each escalation or de-escalation event into the lineage record, which permits deterministic reconstruction of the observation's provenance.

Because the taxonomy is governance-configurable and supports arbitrary depth, a deploying authority may define additional levels, revise scope parameters, or adjust the per-level specifications for its operational domain. Dynamic escalation and de-escalation, together with cross-authority boundary translation between domain taxonomies, let the structure adapt to operating conditions without flattening the hierarchy into a single trust class.

Prior-Art Differentiation

Existing vehicle-to-everything security systems authenticate messages through public-key infrastructure (PKI) and security credential management systems (SCMS), but they treat all authenticated messages homogeneously. They certify that a message is validly signed without an authority-taxonomy semantics that would differentiate the behavioral response according to the message source's governance authority. A valid signature yields a binary valid-or-invalid attribute consumed by a simple authentication check rather than a graded treatment consumed by a cognitive architecture.

The disclosed taxonomy differs structurally. The authority credential carries hierarchical trust semantics: the level of the credentialed source maps to a behavioral-response treatment, a mutation-admission eligibility, an evidential weight, and a supersession relation, all evaluated by the consuming unit's cognitive architecture and the composite admissibility evaluator. Scope and temporal validity travel with each credential rather than residing in deployment configuration. The taxonomy supports arbitrary depth, dynamic escalation and de-escalation, and cross-authority boundary translation between domains. The combination of level-typed authority credentials, per-level behavioral-response, mutation-admission, evidential-weight, and supersession specifications, and a governance-configurable hierarchy consumed by a cognitive architecture is the operative novelty.

Disclosure Scope

This disclosure is set out in U.S. Provisional Application No. 64/049,409. It covers the spatial-mesh authority taxonomy as a governance-configurable hierarchical trust structure defined by a deploying authority for an operational domain, including the per-level specifications, a behavioral-response mapping, a mutation-admission specification, an evidential-weight specification, and a supersession specification; the authority credential that carries an issuing-authority identifier, a scope specification, and a temporal-validity window bound to the emitting device through a governance-credentialed cryptographic attestation; the dynamic authority escalation and de-escalation mechanism with its escalation credential; and the cross-authority boundary translation performed by a governance-credentialed boundary agent. The disclosure extends to the roadway, defense, healthcare, and warehouse or port example taxonomies described above, and to the composition of the taxonomy with the composite admissibility evaluator and the observation lineage.

The disclosure further covers any system that combines (a) level-typed authority credentials whose level maps to behavioral response at the credential level rather than the application layer, (b) a scope specification and temporal validity that travel with each credential and are enforced at admission, (c) per-level mutation-admission, evidential-weight, and supersession specifications consumed by a cognitive architecture and a composite admissibility evaluator, and (d) dynamic escalation and de-escalation together with cross-authority boundary translation between domain taxonomies. Variations in level naming, in the number of levels, in the operational domain, and in the cryptographic representation of credentials are within the disclosure's scope. The mechanism is not limited to any specific number of levels, any specific set of level names, or any specific operational domain.