When Can an Agent Attribute Properties to Itself? A Cognitive Algebra for Identity, Integrity, and Freedom

An agent's cognitive architecture may possess every regional carrier required for a capability and still emit a wrong verdict, because the content those carriers hold is corrupted. Over the MCK observer-relative classification (Bragetti, Asaro and Italiano, Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.21772772), version 2 formalises the boundary between what an architecture can structurally realise and what it can semantically get right. The central object is a two-layer state kappa_a(t) = (Sigma_a(t), Delta_a(t)): regional carriers versus denotational and evidence content. A capability decomposes into structural requirements (Req-Sigma) and content-correctness requirements (Req-Delta), realisability being their conjunction; this yields a three-way status (structurally untypable / typable-but-incorrect / realised) and proves that structural extension is monotone in carrier presence but not in semantic calibration. Six constructions follow: an attribute-certificate calculus for the step-relation licence slot; a self-symbol discharging the epistemogenesis conjecture and anchoring de se and reflexive certification; an other-model triad (modelled agent, modelled observation regime, predicted monitor) with the actual observation-relative monitor imported from Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.21700205; an operator-composition typing separating structural from semantic composability; a bounded transition system making Cert / MetaCert / calibrated-world reachability decidable at finite scale; and a bounded integrity-consistency decision procedure in O(n^2 c) time. Three worked self-properties (continuity, viability, owned branching - glossed identity, integrity, freedom) receive native two-layer signatures with incomparable structural and calibration blast radii. An attention layer completes the architecture: attention as an explicit third configuration coordinate, focus shifts as a declared transition family, a same-state / different-focus theorem, an attention-gated feedback channel over temporal implication, and the activation-signature analysis: of the 32 signatures combining structural realisability, semantic adequacy, attention, reflexive availability, and behavioural expression, exactly 18 are type-consistent, and no link of the naive activation chain holds. Applied to four cognitive worlds, the two-layer state proves same-Sigma / different-Delta non-injectivity. Every finite model, witness and countermodel is exhaustively validated by the checker suite distributed with the article (v1 suite retained without regression; extended regional checker, mechanised dependency-graph extractor, and figure-consistency checker over a single-source visual specification). Version 2 supersedes v1 as an extension; v1 remains available at this concept DOI. --- SCOPE AND STATUS. This is a preprint. It has not been peer reviewed and is not under journal acceptance. --- Version note (this version): this version incorporates a citation-integrity review of the manuscript. Unsupported or inaccurate attributions -- including several DOI, author, and version-identity corrections -- were fixed, and one sentence overstating this paper's relationship to a companion paper's open conjecture was corrected to accurately state that the conjecture remains open. No change to this paper's own central definitions, theorems, or proofs is intended.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23041633
Primary Topic
Cognitive Computing and Networks
Type
preprint
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preprint

When Can an Agent Attribute Properties to Itself? A Cognitive Algebra for Identity, Integrity, and Freedom

Silvio Micali, Giuseppe Francesco Italiano, Davide Bragetti
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Cognitive Computing and Networks
preprint

When Can an Agent Attribute Properties to Itself? A Cognitive Algebra for Identity, Integrity, and Freedom

Silvio Micali, Giuseppe Francesco Italiano, Davide Bragetti
preprint en

Abstract

An agent's cognitive architecture may possess every regional carrier required for a capability and still emit a wrong verdict, because the content those carriers hold is corrupted. Over the MCK observer-relative classification (Bragetti, Asaro and Italiano, Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.21772772), version 2 formalises the boundary between what an architecture can structurally realise and what it can semantically get right. The central object is a two-layer state kappa_a(t) = (Sigma_a(t), Delta_a(t)): regional carriers versus denotational and evidence content. A capability decomposes into structural requirements (Req-Sigma) and content-correctness requirements (Req-Delta), realisability being their conjunction; this yields a three-way status (structurally untypable / typable-but-incorrect / realised) and proves that structural extension is monotone in carrier presence but not in semantic calibration. Six constructions follow: an attribute-certificate calculus for the step-relation licence slot; a self-symbol discharging the epistemogenesis conjecture and anchoring de se and reflexive certification; an other-model triad (modelled agent, modelled observation regime, predicted monitor) with the actual observation-relative monitor imported from Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.21700205; an operator-composition typing separating structural from semantic composability; a bounded transition system making Cert / MetaCert / calibrated-world reachability decidable at finite scale; and a bounded integrity-consistency decision procedure in O(n^2 c) time. Three worked self-properties (continuity, viability, owned branching - glossed identity, integrity, freedom) receive native two-layer signatures with incomparable structural and calibration blast radii. An attention layer completes the architecture: attention as an explicit third configuration coordinate, focus shifts as a declared transition family, a same-state / different-focus theorem, an attention-gated feedback channel over temporal implication, and the activation-signature analysis: of the 32 signatures combining structural realisability, semantic adequacy, attention, reflexive availability, and behavioural expression, exactly 18 are type-consistent, and no link of the naive activation chain holds. Applied to four cognitive worlds, the two-layer state proves same-Sigma / different-Delta non-injectivity. Every finite model, witness and countermodel is exhaustively validated by the checker suite distributed with the article (v1 suite retained without regression; extended regional checker, mechanised dependency-graph extractor, and figure-consistency checker over a single-source visual specification). Version 2 supersedes v1 as an extension; v1 remains available at this concept DOI. --- SCOPE AND STATUS. This is a preprint. It has not been peer reviewed and is not under journal acceptance. --- Version note (this version): this version incorporates a citation-integrity review of the manuscript. Unsupported or inaccurate attributions -- including several DOI, author, and version-identity corrections -- were fixed, and one sentence overstating this paper's relationship to a companion paper's open conjecture was corrected to accurately state that the conjecture remains open. No change to this paper's own central definitions, theorems, or proofs is intended.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (US), Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (IT), Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Cognitive Computing and Networks
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