# The Specificity Thesis v0.3 Public Note

**Status:** implementation-facing public note

**Version:** 0.3

**Repository surface:** BonAcqui-LLC/cognitive-basin-platform
**Current implementation route:** Specificity Engine v0.3 draft pull request

The Specificity Thesis treats representation quality as a governed state problem. A representation is not accepted merely because it is elegant, geometric, compact, or useful in one downstream task. It is measured against a declared target contract: which target-relevant features had to survive, which were preserved, which were lost, and what corrective burden follows.

The current implementation path uses deterministic receipts rather than sampled impressions. A target, fuller record, declared representation, comparator policy, and observed feature outcomes produce a content-addressed specificity receipt. That receipt can then drive structural-debt assessment, Cognitive Basin governance posture, Natural Math process suggestions, and replayable repair.

This note keeps three state systems separate:

- Cognitive Basin epistemic states: `SUPPORTED`, `UNRESOLVED`, `CONTRADICTED`
- Cognitive Basin action states: `EXTEND`, `HOLD`, `RETRACT`
- Natural Math local process states: `EXTEND`, `SENSE`, `RESTRICT`

The implementation does not conflate `HOLD` with `SENSE` or `RETRACT` with `RESTRICT`.

## Claim Boundary

Specificity is a representation-sufficiency and governance program. It does not claim universal measurement authority, proven sentience, artificial personhood, medical authority, or a universal decoder. It is useful only where the target contract, comparator policy, receipt arithmetic, and replay evidence are inspectable.

## Public Review Targets

- Does the declared target contract capture what the representation is supposed to preserve?
- Are missing target features treated as explicit residue rather than hidden narrative?
- Does structural debt change governance posture only through declared policy?
- Can replay reconstruct the final governed state and detect tampering?
- Does a later repair action close the debt without erasing the earlier failure?