Lexicon

Defined Terms

This lexicon defines the core technical primitives underlying the Adaptive Query™ platform—the patent pending execution architecture enabling cognition‑native systems, dynamic identity, and high‑assurance autonomous agents.

• Acceptance Envelope

  A policy-defined bound used to validate or predict successor identities, including token-space neighborhoods in local-state embodiments and freshness or cadence windows in hardware-anchor embodiments. Acceptance envelopes provide structural constraints for predictive validation and slope continuity checks.

• Admissibility

  A structural property determining whether a proposed execution, mutation, or delegation is permitted to occur at all. Admissibility is evaluated prior to execution using embedded policy references, capability sufficiency, and temporal or uncertainty bounds, making forbidden state transitions non-executable rather than merely disallowed.

• Access Log

  The subcomponent of an agent’s memory field recording prior interactions, including access attempts, mutation submissions, trust evaluations, system feedback events, and validation traces. Access logs support auditability and policy-aware routing.

• Action-Type Alias

  An alias augmented with an action verb indicating intended behavior (e.g., fetch:image or mutate:index). Action-type aliases allow policies to restrict or authorize behaviors at resolution time without altering underlying UIDs.

• Adaptive Agent

  A semantic agent that exhibits adaptive query behavior. Structurally, it conforms to the semantic agent schema; behaviorally, it evolves through slope-validated mutations, adjusting intent, context, and policy references in response to environmental conditions.

• Adaptive Consensus Protocol (ACP)

  A policy-referenced, memory-driven quorum mechanism through which nodes validate and authorize structural or behavioral mutations. ACP forms ad hoc quorums based on trust graphs and policy references stored in agent memory.

• Admissibility Gate

  A deterministic validation step that evaluates whether an agent, mutation proposal, or executable objective satisfies all policy, capability, temporal, and uncertainty constraints required for execution. Failure at the admissibility gate results in non-execution, deferral, or structural denial.

• Adaptive Index

  A decentralized semantic index whose topology, anchor maps, quorum thresholds, and internal structure evolve based on policy-monitored conditions such as load, semantic density, and mutation rates. The adaptive index scales without centralized orchestration and persists lineage and resolution paths across structural changes.

• Adaptive Network

  A dynamic, memory-native execution substrate that routes, validates, and governs semantic agents. It interprets agent memory and policy at runtime, enabling cognition-native systems to adapt to trust feedback, environmental entropy, and distributed governance constraints.

• Adaptive Query™

  The trademarked umbrella for the inventor’s cognition-native framework. Philosophically, it reflects intelligence as the iterative refinement of queries; technically, it describes a class of semantic agents that evolve behavior, policy, and purpose through recursive trust-slope mutation.

• Affective Modulation

  The deterministic influence of emotional or affective state parameters on an agent’s planning, mutation path, or semantic behavior. It is structurally encoded and policy-bounded, enabling cognition-native control without probabilistic drift.

• Agent

  A cryptographically signed, memory-bearing data object containing a UID, payload, memory field, transport header, and signature. Agents act as protocol operands and participate in routing, mutation, validation, and identity formation through trust-slope progression.

• Alias

  A human-readable, context-encoded identifier that resolves to a stable UID regardless of structural mutations or renames. Alias resolution first queries anchor-local registries before escalating per policy.

• Alias Pathfinding Query

  A symbolic resolution request that locates the UID linked to an alias through adaptive indexes or slope bands. Pathfinding is mutation-aware and governed by local policy.

• Anchor

  A logical governance point responsible for index metadata, lineage references, permissions, and scoped validation behaviors. Anchors validate mutations through scoped quorum and maintain registries, but do not store content directly.

• Anchor Group

  The active set of anchors responsible for a specific index segment or semantic zone. Anchor groups are elastic and adapt membership and quorum thresholds based on load, mutation rates, or policy constraints.

• Anchor Map

  The authorized membership and configuration snapshot of an anchor group at a given moment, capturing quorum parameters, active anchors, and governance state.

• Anchor Quorum

  The subset of anchors within a scope whose signatures are required to ratify structural mutations, alias resolutions, or index operations. Quorums are scoped, asynchronous, and never global.

• Anchor-Local Registry

  The localized UID and alias catalog maintained by an anchor group for fast, scope-specific resolution. Escalation occurs only when required by policy.

• Asynchronous Scope-Based Consensus

  A local consensus process confined to anchors governing the affected scope, achieving mutation validation without global coordination or unrelated anchor participation.

• Biometric-Assisted Reseeding

  An optional unpredictability source derived from biometric input through privacy-preserving fuzzy extractors with liveness checks. Used solely for reseeding entropy anchors.

• Checkpoint

  A trusted identity snapshot retained by an agent or verifier, enabling reconstruction of missing successors using bounded slope proofs without needing full history.

• Capability Sufficiency

  A pre-execution determination that an agent or substrate possesses the minimum required capabilities, resources, permissions, and temporal availability to realize an executable form of an objective. Capability sufficiency is evaluated structurally rather than inferred at runtime.

• Cognition-Compatible Payload

  A semantic payload containing execution plans, inference graphs, or cognitive models that can operate within the memory-native substrate without requiring substrate-level interpretation.

• Cognition-Native

  A descriptor for execution substrates embedding memory, identity, policy, and semantic validation directly into computational units, enabling agents to enact intelligence rather than simulate it.

• Cognition-Native Admissibility

  An execution model in which admissibility is evaluated as a first-class structural operation using memory-resident policy, lineage, and capability evidence, rather than inferred from model behavior, prompts, or post-hoc supervision.

• Computational Psychiatry

  The application of semantic agents and trust-slope models to simulate and analyze psychiatric phenomena such as delusion formation, identity fragmentation, or validator collapse.

• Consensus Node

  A node eligible to participate in quorum decisions under ACP based on agent memory and policy references. Eligibility is dynamic and scoped, requiring no persistent validator identity.

• Container

  A governed semantic unit—such as an index entry or asset pointer—whose metadata, permissions, and lineage are maintained by anchors and validated under scoped quorum.

• Content Anchor

  A CAH-registered semantic content object maintained within an anchor’s index scope, containing lineage, alias claims, and propagation policy.

• Content Anchor Hash (CAH)

  A static, entropy-derived UID assigned to a digital artifact, enabling version-tolerant tracking, semantic lineage resolution, and decentralized rights enforcement.

• Content Anchoring

  A system for establishing semantic identity, provenance, and continuity in evolving digital media. It replaces fragile static hashes with traceable semantic lineage.

• Cumulative Chain Hash

  A forward-secure digest computed over lineage entries such that any omission, modification, or reordering causes divergence of the terminal value and detection of tampering.

• Delayed Validation

  Authenticating a presentation after latency or disconnection by replaying successors from a checkpoint or anchor using a supplied slope proof.

• Domain Separation

  The practice of seeding extractors and KDFs with deployment-fixed public seeds and context tags to ensure tokens and derived keys cannot be linked across domains or epochs.

• Dynamic Indexing Protocol (DIP)

  An optional protocol layer that restructures semantic flows based on entropy thresholds, semantic density, and lineage volatility.

• Dynamic Routing Protocol (DRP)

  A memory-aware routing layer that scores candidate paths based on trust data, network health, and semantic constraints.

• Executable Form

  A realizable representation of an objective whose execution path satisfies admissibility, capability sufficiency, temporal constraints, and bounded uncertainty. Objectives that cannot be reduced to an executable form are deferred or rejected without failure.

• Dynamic Signature Mesh (DSM)

  The memory-native authentication framework that validates identity by progressing along trust slopes using local unpredictability, bounded proofs, and periodic anchors instead of persistent keys.

• Entropy

  A unified term encompassing structural entropy, semantic entropy, and unpredictability sources used across identity formation, adaptive indexing, mutation validation, and semantic execution. Entropy may be hardware-derived, local-state-derived, context-dependent, or hybridized. The term covers:

  • Structural Entropy: locally derived non-deterministic device or substrate state.
  • Context-Dependent Semantic Entropy: node-local variation in semantic or network state.
  • Identity Entropy: per-step unpredictability inputs used in DAH/DDH computation.

• Entropy Anchor

  The initial unpredictability state from which a trust slope originates; anchors may be rotated or forward-linked for auditability.

• Entropy Band

  A quantized segment of entropy space used for routing, indexing, validation, and governance within adaptive semantic substrates. Entropy bands partition the entropy continuum into stable, policy-scoped ranges that determine which anchor groups, quorum scopes, or resolution domains are responsible for handling agents, content anchors, or structural mutations. Bands enable decentralized load balancing, scope isolation, and mutation containment without global coordination, and remain stable across index splits, merges, or anchor rotations.

• Entropy Identifier

  A unique, entropy-derived identifier used for indexing, routing, or mutation-scoped governance. Entropy identifiers bind semantic or structural objects to specific ranges of entropy space, enabling stable resolution and decentralized load distribution.

• Extractor

  A cryptographic function that transforms a normalized local state vector or noisy input into a high-entropy token without exposing raw underlying state. Extractor outputs may be disclosed in bounded proofs and are used in successor computation.

• Fallback Identifier (FID)

  A session-scoped identifier derived from a transient public key and nonce for compatibility with legacy PKI systems. FIDs are kept within an isolation boundary and never incorporated into DAH/DDH evolution.

• Forward Link

  A cryptographic binding that links the terminal value of a prior epoch to a newly seeded identity epoch, enabling verifiable continuity after entropy-anchor rotation or slope reseeding.

• Health Agent

  An agent emitted by a network health monitoring subsystem that reports congestion, trust volatility, propagation entropy, cache pressure, or similar telemetry. Health agents influence routing, mutation behavior, and quorum decisions.

• Host Mutation Token

  A value derived from the executing host’s current DDH and mutation class or epoch information, binding an agent’s successor DAH to the host device during slope entanglement.

• Index Split

  A policy-authorized structural mutation in which an adaptive index partitions a semantic or entropy-dense region into two or more anchored sub-scopes, each governed by its own anchor group.

• Lineage

  The cryptographically committed history of state transitions for agents, containers, or index scopes, including successor identities, anchor maps, quorum signatures, and mutation justifications.

• Lineage Entry

  A signed semantic record appended to an agent’s memory field that includes a prior DAH, successor DAH, host DDH, host mutation token, mutation metadata, and per-step digest.

• Local State Vector (LSV)

  A bounded-dimension vector of locally observable device or execution signals which, once normalized and projected, becomes suitable input for high-entropy extraction.

• Memory Field

  The memory-bearing section of an agent that records lineage, access logs, trust evaluations, semantic traces, and policy references; used to evaluate behavior deterministically without external state.

• Memory-Resolved Identity

  An identity model in which authentication depends exclusively on locally retained unpredictability, lineage evidence, and policy-scoped traces rather than persistent credentials or third-party attestations.

• Memory-Native Admissibility

  An admissibility regime in which execution eligibility is computed exclusively from agent-embedded memory, lineage, and policy references, requiring no external authorization service or centralized control plane.

• Mutation

  A policy-authorized structural or behavioral modification within an agent, container, or index scope—including add, merge, split, relocate, or re-index operations—validated under scoped quorum. All mutations are subject to admissibility evaluation prior to execution.

• Mutation Class

  Policy-relevant metadata assigned to a mutation step, indicating the type, scope, or intended semantic effect of the mutation and constraining successor acceptance.

• Mutation Proposal

  A structured request embedded within an agent to enact a mutation, evaluated by anchors under Adaptive Consensus Protocol using embedded policy references.

• Non-Executable State Transition

  A proposed action or mutation that fails admissibility evaluation and therefore cannot occur within the substrate. Non-executable transitions do not generate errors or violations; they are structurally unreachable states.

• Mutation Router

  An anchor-scoped mechanism that selects propagation paths for proposed mutations based on semantic proximity, trust entropy, telemetry, and policy constraints.

• Near Real-Time

  A system behavior producing a result with a slight but acceptable delay—approximately 250 milliseconds—between an event and its processing or validation within the substrate.

• Node (Substrate / Host)

  A computational environment—physical, virtual, or ephemeral—that executes agents and maintains its own DDH for memory-resolved authentication.

• Policy Agent

  An agent encoding governance logic, quorum thresholds, mutation eligibility, role permissions, and validation rules. Referenced from other agents’ memory fields to authorize or deny operations. Policy agents are evaluated as part of admissibility gating and cannot be bypassed through orchestration or inference.

• Predictive Validation

  A forecasting mechanism that generates expected successor identities, cadence windows, and token-space envelopes based on historical mutation behavior.

• Pre-Execution Governance

  A governance model in which policy enforcement occurs before execution or mutation is allowed to proceed, ensuring that prohibited outcomes are prevented structurally rather than detected or punished after the fact.

• Quorum

  The subset of anchors whose affirmative signatures are required to validate a mutation, resolution, or structural update within a governed scope.

• Quorum-Based Reauthentication

  A recovery process using attestations from previously trusted peers to re-establish slope continuity after memory loss or discontinuity, without persistent credentials.

• Recovery Token

  A commitment constructed over a reseeded identity and quorum of signatures that restores trust-slope continuity following discontinuity or memory loss.

• Scope Tag

  Policy-defined metadata labeling the semantic or governance scope of a successor, influencing routing constraints, eligibility, and validation.

• Semantic Agent

  An agent with cognition-compatible structure, including intent fields and dynamic policy references, enabling adaptive mutation, delegation, and semantic behavior across domains.

• Semantic Lineage Graph

  A memory-resident or anchor-retained structure recording mutation chains, delegation paths, slope deltas, and policy validations.

• Semantic Proximity

  A measure of affinity or contextual relatedness between containers or scopes, used to prioritize quorum participation and mutation routing.

• Semantic Routing

  A routing paradigm in which propagation paths are selected based on semantic relevance, trust entropy, policy constraints, and agent state rather than static addresses or topology alone.

• Slope Entanglement

  The cryptographic and behavioral binding between an agent’s DAH and its host device’s DDH, enforced through host mutation tokens and signed lineage traces.

• Slope Proof

  A bounded disclosure containing per-step materials required for recomputing missing successors from a checkpoint or anchor without revealing raw state.

• Stateless Mode

  A deployment configuration where nodes persist no external memory between agent evaluations; all decisions are made from agent-embedded data.

• Symbolic Alias

  A human-readable identifier in the form [type]@[domain]/[path] mapped to a stable UID, supporting mutation-aware resolution.

• Transport Header

  Metadata embedded in an agent that defines routing constraints such as TTL, trust radius, semantic class, and quorum priority.

• Trust Entropy

  A dynamic trust metric derived from telemetry, interaction history, and quorum outcomes, distinct from identity entropy, used for routing and mutation evaluation.

• Trust Graph

  An evolving memory-informed model mapping prior interactions to trust scores used in routing, quorum weighting, and consensus nodes.

• Trust Slope

  A validated sequence of DAHs or DDHs produced by successive identity mutations; continuity requires each successor to be a valid descendant of the prior trusted state.

• Trust-Slope Admissibility

  An admissibility mechanism that evaluates whether a proposed successor identity or mutation falls within acceptable trust-slope bounds derived from prior validated history and policy-defined deviation thresholds.

• Two-Stage Authentication

  An authentication model in which header-level continuity of DAH is validated prior to decryption, followed by payload-level continuity validation of an embedded sender DAH.

• Volatile Salt

  A non-repeating freshness value used during successor computation to prevent replay and cross-context reuse, scoped to a step or epoch.