Derivation

Represents something derived from sources with associated uncertainty.

A Derivation captures the epistemic properties of derived knowledge:

• Confidence: How certain we are (0.0 = uncertain, 1.0 = certain)

• Importance: How much this fact matters (0.0 = trivial, 1.0 = critical)

• Decay: How quickly it becomes stale (0.0 = eternal, 1.0 = ephemeral)

• Grounding: What sources support this derivation

Both Propositions (raw extracted knowledge) and Projection items (derived representations) implement this interface, enabling uniform handling of uncertain, traceable knowledge.

Usage

fun processDerivation(d: Derivation) {
    if (d.confidence 0.8 && d.decay < 0.3) {
        // High confidence, low decay - reliable long-term knowledge
        storeInLongTermMemory(d)
    }
    if (d.importance 0.8) {
        // High importance - prioritise regardless of confidence
        flagForAttention(d)
    }
    // Trace back to sources
    d.grounding.forEach { sourceId ->
        log("Derived from: $sourceId")
    }
}

Inheritors