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Proof

Remove one belief. Replay the same event. The response disappears.

Astra reaches the same scheduled catch in two recorded versions, and her previous experiences remain in both. In one version she holds a belief about herself. In the other that belief has been cleared. The response appears only where the belief is present.

One change. Two recorded outcomes.

With her beliefAstra reacts.
With that belief clearedAstra carries on.

The same starting conditions and event schedule. One belief is removed before the shared event.

Compare the recorded responses

01 One run, two versions

Astra reacted in one version and carried on in the other.

Astra escaped three times and came to believe she was the fast one. Being caught twice changed her mind. Ember escaped two times without forming that belief.

The Believed stage at the second catch, where the two versions part.

The run as it happened

123.3 s Astra is caught again

The belief is dropped: two contradictions in a row and Astra no longer holds it.

Inspect the recorded values
  • trait swift
  • conviction 0
  • doubt 0
  • held before yes
  • held no
  • times shaken 1

The run with one belief cleared

109.8 s Astra is caught again

Nothing to contradict: Astra holds no belief about being the fast one, so the loss lands as an ordinary event.

Inspect the recorded values
  • trait swift
  • conviction 3
  • doubt 0
  • held before no
  • held no
  • times shaken 0

The two versions ran as separate processes, so their timestamps differ. The order of the events and their content do not.

What this supports

A persistent internal belief can be part of the causal path to a character response, in this recorded mechanism.

What this does not yet support

A general effect size, performance at population scale, or belief-driven choice of what the character does next.

Every step of every stage

02 What changed

Change the belief. Change the response.

Astra’s memories stayed. Her belief was removed before the catches. The game calculated the response again.

Both recordings use 2 characters, the same starting conditions and the same code path within a 90 second observation window.

The original logs and comparison file let you inspect the intervention and the resulting state changes.

The conditions and the three files

What differs, in the run's own file

Changed
one self-belief row on Astra set to held=false, conviction unchanged
Unchanged
the same starting conditions, same world events, same schedule, same bodies, same code path
Everything downstream
re-derived by the running system in the cleared run's own process; no value in either file was edited by hand

03 The register

Three implemented. Five being tested.

14 more are designed, not built. We judge every claim by one rule: withhold the claimed cause, hold the world constant, and see whether the behaviour changes.

Implemented , 3 claims

Runs in Luminids, with tests and saved character state.

  • Implemented

    Event and autobiographical record

    Each character keeps a bounded, curated record of what it has lived through, and that record changes how it develops.

    Test suite, character layer 

  • Implemented

    Persistent individual identity

    Each character keeps a stable identity, and that identity survives saving and loading.

    Test suite, character layer 

  • Implemented

    Grounded authored expression

    What a character says is assembled from what it has actually lived, and it stays silent rather than claim something it cannot support.

    Test suite, character layer 

In production validation , 5 claims

Runs in the game and is undergoing broader validation.

  • In production validation

    Shared pair history

    Two individuals share one bounded record of the history between them, written during ordinary play.

    Test suite, relationship tests 

  • In production validation

    Evidence held per character

    Evidence is held per individual, and it gates what that individual is allowed to claim.

    Test suite, character layer 

  • In production validation

    Belief-gated response

    A character that has come to believe something about itself reacts when the world contradicts it, remembers the day, and lets the belief go; a character that never formed the belief does neither.

    The recorded run 

  • In production validation

    Appraisal and expectation revision

    A character can hold an expectation, discover it was wrong, and be changed by that.

    Test suite, character layer 

  • In production validation

    Belief-gated action

    A character would act on what it believes about someone else, then find the world has moved on and adjust rather than pretend.

Proposed , 14 claims

The capabilities and tools we’re working towards.

14 more capabilities are designed and not yet built.

04 The tests

Test the character through play, change and saving.

The published suite snapshot is dated 28 August 2026: 8,888 tests executed, 99.19% passing, 72 known failures.

Some of the tests, as the suite names them

  • a character remembers who raised it
  • a name you gave is visible
  • the hatch is witnessed
  • care is witnessed
  • every quirk is earnable
  • a save never contains a statue
  • a companion never asks a name she already used

The research questions behind the evaluation

The published suite snapshot

8,888
test cases run
72
failures, included on purpose
2,043
cases in the character and cognition layer
1,096
suite files

A 99.19% pass rate over roughly 13.5 minutes. Of the 1,096 suite files, 29 carry a failure.