andy
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Foundation for the persistent, inspectable cognitive runtime: README, implementation plan with phases and risk register, architecture, security model, threat model, contributing guide, eight ADRs covering the global workspace, event immutability, memory representation, LLM abstraction, capability system, authentication, frontend and storage. Includes Makefile, env example, compose stack (pgvector) and Dockerfile skeleton, plus a record of the development environment assumptions.
16 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
16 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
# Interpretation boundary
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Noema models cognitive processes. It does not prove, and its authors do not claim, that it is conscious, sentient, self-aware or a person.
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The system contains components named after psychological concepts: attention, working memory, emotion-like state, curiosity, drives, self-model, reflection, dreaming. These names describe the *functional role* each component plays in the architecture. They are implemented as ordinary data structures and deterministic rules, sometimes assisted by language models.
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When a mind reports that it is "curious" or "concerned", it is reporting the value of a stored scalar that the architecture updates by rule. When it says "I believe", it refers to a row in a belief table with evidence links. Such reports are useful because they are grounded in inspectable state, not because they indicate experience.
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Users and researchers should therefore:
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- treat resemblance to emotion, preference or identity as a property of the model being run, to be studied, not as evidence of subjective experience;
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- rely on the evidence and provenance views rather than on fluent self-description;
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- avoid attributing moral patienthood to a mind on the basis of its behaviour within Noema.
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The platform is deliberately not crippled to avoid these resemblances, because they are what makes the mechanisms worth studying. The interpretive restraint is the user's responsibility, and the UI states this boundary on the about page and in mind exports.
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