State, memory and knowledge
Distinguish operational truth, historical experience and claims about the world.
#Three kinds of information
Operational state answers what is currently authorized, unfinished or accepted. Memory records experience that might inform future work. Knowledge contains claims about a domain and the sources supporting them. These records serve different purposes. A task marked accepted is a state transition, not proof that every sentence in its report is true. A remembered preference can guide a decision without becoming a new source of authority.
#A memory needs conditions of applicability
Attach important memory to its origin, scope, source version and freshness conditions. An observation about one client release may stop applying after an upgrade. AxiomAO’s memory design uses epochs and source snapshots so earlier records remain historical rather than silently governing a changed situation. Re-evaluate a note when dependencies change; preserve the original account and add the current conclusion instead of rewriting history to make it look consistent.
#Make claims traceable
A useful claim links to its source, extraction context and the decision it informed. W3C PROV provides a vocabulary for expressing provenance across entities, activities and agents; an organization can adopt those ideas without claiming full standards conformance. For a research report, preserve the document version, observation date and unresolved disagreement. Search results and fluent summaries are discovery aids; they do not remove the need to inspect supporting material.
Sources & context
- SQLite: transactions
- W3C: overview of provenance specifications
- Axiom AO — source documentation excerpts (2026-10-14)
Reference edition 0.1 · 2026-10-14. Read the editorial method.