SPEC · F.A.T.E. — 2026 · stratified protocol architecture · v3 · realism-depth program · oracle A

F.A.T.E./14

A stratified protocol architecture for the human substrate. Network engineering gave us the vocabulary. This page keeps its own fourteen-layer numbering as a working conceit — empirical, not architectural; elsewhere the same substrate is framed as a 6-layer system around an 8-rung mind-body cascade, and nothing here contradicts that. What’s changed since this stack was drawn is depth: hundreds of operators now run live where overlays once sat.

VERSION · F.A.T.E./14 · BUILD · Realism-Depth · Oracle A · portal · return to the architecture →
PRIOR ART
The closest cultural model for what F.A.T.E. describes is the OSI seven-layer reference model (ISO/IEC 7498-1, 1984). OSI gave engineering a clean vocabulary for stratified protocols: each layer wraps the one below, talks only to its peer on the other side, and never inspects layers above the one that wrote it. F.A.T.E. inherits the vocabulary and abandons the layer count. OSI had seven layers because that's what telecom in 1984 needed. TCP/IP collapsed those into four. The body required fourteen because the calibration gate refused to merge any pass with fewer. Different territory, different stack.

Four bands. Fourteen layers.

The fourteen-layer stack groups into four functional bands. Each band is a self-contained protocol family that the next band consumes whole — and never inspects.

BAND I · SUBSTRATE
The wire and the chemistry.
L1 · Deep Genetics
L2 · Epigenetics
L3 · Neurochemistry
Inherited, set before language, runs every tick regardless. + 9 chemistry overlays.
BAND II · PERCEPTUAL
World becomes feeling.
L4 · Affect & Appraisal
Every event filtered through the B-matrix, collapsed into VAD — valence, arousal, dominance.
BAND III · COGNITIVE / RELATIONAL
Feeling becomes a self that knows itself — and is known by others.
L5 · Schema Lattice
L6 · Episodic Store
L7 · Cue-Field (Hebbian)
L8 · Relational Ledger · K=1 LIVE
L9 · H-Map Affinity
L10 · Reward Physics · dopamine RPE K=1 LIVE
L11 · Group Identity · K=0 inert
L5–L7 is memory architecture (schemas · episodes · cue-field). L8–L11 is the relational/social substrate shipped 2026-05-24: L8 K=1 live, L10 and L11 inert under sign-off gates.
BAND IV · OUTPUT
Self decides, acts, persists.
L12 · Cultural Substrate
L13 · Economic & Spatial Load
L14 · DMN / Identity Narrative
L14b · Tag / Narration Scaffold
The narrator composes. The softmax samples. Every action now carries Mode-O (truth) / Mode-C (cover story). The body moves through a culture that sculpts it back. Hundreds of live operators.
UP · INTERPRETATION encapsulation
A world event hits the substrate and wraps upward, each layer adding its framing. The narrator at the top sees only the final wrapping.
DOWN · CONFIGURATION plasticity
Lower layers slowly update from outcomes above (plasticity, schema encoding, epigenetic drift). No layer can skip another. Free will would require a third path that does not exist.
How to read this stack

Substrate — the layered system every agent runs on. Each layer reads state below it, writes its own state, and is read by the layer above. Genes feed neurochemistry, which feeds affect, which feeds schemas, which feed decisions, which feed the world. No layer can skip another.

PDU — protocol data unit, borrowed from OSI. The atomic message each layer passes upward. At L4 it's a VAD affect delta; at L8 it's a per-tie EMA update; at L14 it's a verb + a post-hoc sentence.

K = * — the gate switch on every behaviour-coupling substep. K=0 means the operator runs as a byte-identical no-op (substrate is wired but inert). K=1 means the coupling is live and the 16-seed calibration gate has cleared it. Every new substrate ships at K=0 first; the K=1 flip is a separate sign-off.

↑ TOP
BAND IV · OUTPUTself decides, acts, persists
L 14
XIV
OSI · L6 + L7
DMN / Identity Narrativeruns late in cognition · DECISION softmax · policy gradient LIVE

The narrator that composes "I chose this" — after the softmax has already sampled. Now grounded in the 23-topic preoccupation stack and a tonic det_bond_presence channel; every action carries Mode-O (truth) / Mode-C (cover story). The policy learns every tick (K_POLICY_GRADIENT_ENABLED=1). Writes prose; the body already moved.

PDU:narration · action verbsubstrate:dmn_idle_content · self_concept × 8 · π softmax
live state
rumination17
narrative_certainty0.62
top actionWITHDRAW

What this layer does

Two operations happen at the top of the stack each tick. First, the softmax samples — action ~ softmax((π · features + slot_priors + schema_boosts + identity_bias) / T) — and a verb fires. Then the Default Mode Network composes a sentence about why. The sentence becomes the agent's introspective memory of "thinking," packed from a replayed P32 episode, a P33 free-association, a P48 identity-coherent reframe. The softmax never reads the DMN. The narrator reads everything below, composes prose, and presents it to introspection as the cause.

The agent says "I want coffee this morning." The substrate had already determined P(coffee) = 0.71 before this sentence was packed.

PDU · narration + action

typeverb + post-hoc prose payload"I chose this" authorityprose: read-only · verb: world-mutating latencyprose post-decision
OSI parallel:presentation + application — translates substrate state into prose the introspector renders, then commits the action to the world
L 13
XIII
OSI · L5
Economic & Spatial LoadWORLD · macro_cycle.ts · placement.ts · PARTIAL

The pressure of the world. Business cycle, housing, labor tightness, location capacity — but crowding is mechanically weightless. Overflow event, no resource competition. Occupational control, though, is now a felt force: chronic low control builds a persistent threat-charge — the Whitehall gradient, LIVE.

PDU:macroeconomic scalarsubstrate:cycle · inflation · rent · housing · 512 locations
live state
business cycleexpansion
labor tightness0.62
wealth Gini0.43
felt controlK=1 LIVE

What this layer does

Macro econ exists — macro_business_cycle, _inflation_cumulative, _rent_index, _housing_price_index, _labor_tightness all run every tick. Spatial capacity exists too (location_capacity/location_occupancy, hard caps). The dimension missing is mechanical weight. When a location overflows, an event fires — but there's no resource competition, no scarcity penalty. The pressure-cooker dimension of urban life isn't yet a felt force.

Per Phase 1.5 fixes, the spatial grid now scopes both selectSlotTarget and getTopNeighbors to co-present agents — so the housing and labor-pool substrate at least filters the right candidate set.

Felt control is now LIVE. Occupational control shapes felt threat in real time (K_PSAM_CONTROL_ENRICH=1.0, K_CTRL_THREAT_FELT_ENABLED=1, K_JOBSTRESS_WHITEHALL_FIX_ENABLED=1, with habituation) — the first depth enable to affect the means of the sim, not just its texture. Oracle: LOW-B 3.625 / HIGH-C+ 3.375.

PDU · pressure

typemacro scalar · capacity ceiling written bymacro_cycle.ts · placement.ts read byjobs · housing · contagion · memes missingK_SPATIAL_CROWD_PENALTY (bisection lever)
OSI parallel:session — the bookkeeping layer that tracks who's where and what it costs to be there
L 12
XII
(no OSI parallel)
Cultural SubstrateP36 + P52 · location_charge + memes · PARTIAL

The culture that sculpts the substrate back. BEAUTY_IDEAL diffuses through the population. Locations carry affective charge. Faith and cultural capital travel with bodies.

PDU:meme · location chargesubstrate:location_emotional_charge · meme pool · faith_level · cultural_capital
live state
beauty adoption0.99
memes active24
faith_levelK=1 LIVE

What this layer does

This is the world the body lives in culturally. Locations carry affective charge that pulls arriving agents' valence (location_dynamics.ts). Memes propagate deterministically through the population — BEAUTY_IDEAL on the meme substrate writes an adoption-weighted ideal vector that the SELF_WORTH schema reads. Faith and cultural capital are agent-carried (data-in-flight) and decay over generations unless reinforced.

What's missing: per-neighborhood economic/opportunity/trauma bias. The cultural-economic location history that pre-loads agents born there. The neighborhood you're born into IS your group tag AND your initial cultural load — one move (origin-seeding) that unifies with L11.

PDU · culture frame

typememe / location_charge diffusiondeterministic, persistent, extinction-exempt feedback→ L5 schemas, L1 mate selection across generations
OSI parallel:none — outside the original stack; the data-at-rest layer beneath every body
L 11
XI
OSI · L4
Group Identity · "Social VLAN"DAY_END/13 · group_seed.ts · SHIPPED K=0 inert

Persistent multi-group membership. The neighborhood, family, class, faith you were born into is your group tag — and the in/out-group bias that follows. Wired, inert, sign-off gated.

PDU:group tag · cohort bitmasksubstrate:group_id (Uint16) · group_bitmask (Uint32)
live state
group_idK=0
spawnChild inherit~90% mother
BELONGING splitS2-B pending

What this layer does

Per-agent group_id (Uint16, primary cohort) + group_bitmask (Uint32, multi-group affiliation flags). Founder seed at tick 0 and spawnChild mother-inheritance at ~90% are gated and ready. At K_GROUP_IDENTITY_ENABLED=1, the in/out-group logit bias activates at the existing decision.ts:287 schema-bias seam — no new verb.

S2-A flips on the logit bias. S2-B is the BELONGING schema discriminator-bit split (in-group vs out-group, preserving K=0 byte-identity by repurposing one bit). S2-C clique promotion rides L8 rel_intimacy — mutual high-intimacy ties get consensus-promoted to first-class clique status. Tribalism, in/out-group bias, neighborhood opportunity inheritance, coalition competition all unlock here.

PDU · group tag

typecohort identifier + bitmask seededfounder + spawnChild (primes 137/149) gate stateK_GROUP_IDENTITY_ENABLED=0 · S2-A/B/C separate sign-offs unblocks9 BLOCKED catalog rows on enable
OSI parallel:transport — the routing layer that says "your kind goes here"
L 10
X
OSI · L3
Reward Physicsbrain_axis.ts · LIVE K=1

The trauma-bond / limerence / honeymoon-cycle mechanism. Dopamine RPE, oxytocin, vasopressin — all LIVE; only variable-ratio reinforcement still sign-off gated.

PDU:ligand pulse · prediction errorsubstrate:oxytocin_ligand · dopamine_predicted · bond_reward_schedule · reward_history_window
live state
oxytocin pulseK=1 · 0.5
dopamine RPEK=1 · 0.4
variable-ratioS3 pending

What this layer does

Reward physics is no longer flat. Dopamine RPE is LIVE (Berridge wanting/liking, K=0.4) — a true reward-prediction-error signal with an eligibility trace, replacing the legacy *0.30 decay. Oxytocin spikes on bonding-class events (bond-couple 0.5, event-pulse 0.30, female ×1.6 around parturition/lactation). Vasopressin mate-guards at 0.5 and potentiates the HPA axis at 0.6. The one piece still gated is variable-ratio reinforcement — the trauma-bond lever, where intermittent reward makes supply-seeking compulsive.

The brain_axis.ts gated branch reduces bit-for-bit to the legacy *0.30 decay at K=0; reward_physics_legacy_equivalence.test.ts guards K=0 parity. S3 variable-ratio enable is the unlock for trauma bonding, limerence, honeymoon cycle, codependency, break-up→re-turn — calibration-load-bearing, mandatory human sign-off + re-baseline.

PDU · reward pulse

typeligand / RPE / variable-ratio gate stateK_REWARD_PHYSICS_ENABLED=0 S2 pathA: oxytocin · B: dopamine RPE · C: variable-ratio unblockstrauma bonding · limerence · honeymoon cycle
OSI parallel:network — the cross-layer messaging substrate that decides which signals are reward
L 9
IX
(memory-arch)
H-Map · pairwise affinitysocial.ts · sparse Map<edgeKey, Interaction>

Persistent pairwise interaction history. What this body has felt around that one, summed. Sparse, asymmetric in the H-map — symmetrized by affinity() before consumption.

PDU:directional valence + countsubstrate:H sparse map · ψ social embedding
live state
edges active~480
mean tie count6.78
affinity callssymmetrised

What this layer does

Every pairwise interaction writes a small valence delta to the H-map. Over time, cumulativeValence[i,j] / count[i,j] measures the felt history between two bodies. The H-map stores directional valence — but then affinity() at social.ts:28 computes both directions and throws the asymmetry away via (fwdVal+bckVal)*0.5. That symmetrization was the spine of the L8 gap, until L8 shipped to recover the directional signal each side independently.

Calibration-load-bearing: affinity() feeds bonding, contagion, plasticity. Read, don't modify — downstream consumers wire to L8 rel_* for directionality instead.

PDU · pairwise history

typeedge record storagesparse Map<edgeKey, Interaction> consumed bybonding · contagion · plasticity · ψ embedding caveataffinity() symmetrises; L8 recovers directionality
OSI parallel:data link — addressable per-edge messages between adjacent agents
L 8
VIII
OSI · L4
Relational LedgerSOCIAL_BONDS/5 · DAY_END/14 · SHIPPED K=1 LIVE

The per-dyad asymmetric layer that was missing. Five narratable EventKinds emit from per-tie EMAs that carry directional signal independently each way. Now also LIVE: bond contact-decay (closes loop F6), interaction-stamping (tie_last_interact), and ~4-month dyad sentiment snapshots.

PDU:per-tie EMA · narratable eventsubstrate:rel_attention_balance · rel_strain · rel_intimacy · rel_emit_latched
live state
K_RELATIONAL_LEDGERK=1 ACTIVE
tie-age guard60 ticks
narratable5 EventKinds

What this layer does

Almost every domestic pathology is a property of an asymmetric relationship: one person invests more, does more, wants more, is hurt more. L8 stores the relevant state as per-tie EMA accumulators — rel_attention_balance, rel_strain, rel_intimacy — on the existing tie-slot stride. The asymmetry is representable for free: each direction has its own slot. relational_resolve.ts at DAY_END:14 emits five narratable EventKinds under a tie-age guard (K_REL_EMIT_MIN_TIE_AGE=60 ticks) to avoid the fresh-bond zero-init false-positive class.

Shipped 2026-05-24 with the gate flipped to K=1 in the same merge. The 16-seed mean gate stays bit-identical because no telemetry mean reads the new fields yet — the relational signal will surface as downstream consumers wire to it.rel_* fields yet. Contempt cascade, demand-withdraw, skin hunger, validation-driven affair all unlock as S2 consumers wire to it.

PDU · per-tie EMA

typeEMA accumulator + bitflag latch emitsATTENTION_ASYMMETRY · EMOTIONAL_NEGLECT_FELT · NUMBNESS_ONSET · SKIN_HUNGER · RELATIONAL_CYCLE_MARK gate stateK=1 ACTIVE since 2026-05-24 downstreamP2.3 · P3.1 · P4.E · P4.O · P4.P (all on L8 stride)
OSI parallel:session — keeps the bookkeeping for each relationship independently of the agents' personal state
·
BAND III · COGNITIVEfeeling becomes a self that knows itself
L 7
VII
(memory-arch)
Cue-Field · Hebbian latticeAPPRAISAL/80 · P33

Sparse Hebbian graph. The smell that returns the room. Cues fire schemas, schemas fire actions. ~500 edges per agent; 2-3 hop propagation seeds decision logits.

PDU:edge activationsubstrate:~500 sparse edges/agent · lattice_from/to/strength
live state
edges~500
fires this tick12
2-hop reach14 nodes

What this layer does

Hebbian-strengthening edges between cue, person, schema, action, location nodes. When a cue fires (smell, room, song), it propagates 2-3 hops through the lattice and biases the decision softmax via schema_boosts. The smell of your grandmother's house can fire the BELONGING schema thirty years later because that edge was reinforced every Sunday afternoon between ages 4 and 12.

Decision logits are seeded by lattice activation alone for a meaningful fraction of choices — especially System-1 takeover when GABA × glucose × (1 − emo_load) is high (P34 dual-process gate).

PDU · edge fire

typeassociation activation storagesparse edge list per agent consumed bydecision logits · schema retrieval canonical phenomenonProustian recall
OSI parallel:none — pure memory-architecture extension
L 6
VI
(memory-arch)
Episodic StoreAPPRAISAL/60 · sleep DAY_END consolidation · P32

~64 salience-pinned moments per agent. Flashbulb above 0.85. Trauma above 0.95 and negative. Sleep replays the top-K into schemas. Two live couplings: cortisol impairs consolidation (de Quervain), and a BDNF reconsolidation window is the substrate behind gaslighting.

PDU:episode recordsubstrate:~64 slot pool · salience/valence/arousal/cortisol/cue_target
live state
slots used52 / 64
top salience0.91
last replaytick 14091

What this layer does

High-salience moments get pinned to the episode pool. Each carries a snapshot of the moment's affect (valence, arousal, cortisol), a cue_target binding it to the lattice, and a schema_mask saying which schemas were active. During sleep (DAY_END), the top-K episodes consolidate — they replay through the schemas, deepening the encoded valence/arousal targets. What you remember most strongly becomes more of who you are.

The episode store is the substrate for intrusion, flashbacks, trauma, and flashbulb memory. P50 DMN replay reuses this pool during mind-wandering.

PDU · episode

typesalience-tagged snapshot storagefixed pool per agent (~64) consumed bysleep replay · DMN wander · intrusion canonical phenomenatrauma · flashbulb · nostalgia
OSI parallel:none — pure memory-architecture extension
L 5
V
OSI · L4
Schema LatticeAPPRAISAL/50 · P31

Six innate slots, learned content. SELF_WORTH, ATTACHMENT, INTIMATE_OTHER, AUTHORITY, THREAT_RESPONSE, BELONGING. The bridge between neurochemistry and personality.

PDU:retrieval pull + logit boostsubstrate:6 schema slots · valence/arousal targets · strength · fire/write counts
live state
active fires3 / 6
SELF_WORTH−0.42
encoding rate×0.07 (adult)

What this layer does

Six schema slots are innate; their contents are written by the emotional texture of lived experience. The encoding rate is critical-period gated: it falls 36× from birth (×2.5) to age 25 (×0.07) and never recovers. Once a schema is set, retrieval pulls affect toward its stored targets — the SELF_WORTH schema with a stored valence of −0.42 will pull mood negative every time it fires, regardless of what the world is actually doing.

Inherited at birth at weight 0.30 (reproduction.ts:131) — children arrive pre-loaded with their parents' schema content, blended with universal defaults. The schemas are the substrate behind all of personality.

PDU · retrieval pull

typeschema activation slotsSELF_WORTH · ATTACHMENT · INTIMATE_OTHER · AUTHORITY · THREAT_RESPONSE · BELONGING inheritance0.30 from parents at spawnChild canonical phenomenapersonality · attachment styles · core beliefs
OSI parallel:transport — schemas route affect to the right downstream consumers
·
BAND II · PERCEPTUALworld becomes feeling
L 4
IV
OSI · L3
Affect & AppraisalAPPRAISAL/0 · appraisal.ts · B-matrix perception

VAD affect (valence/arousal/dominance) driven by an appraisal feature vector + per-locus B-matrix sensitivity. The filter between event and felt change. The B-matrix is modified at runtime by trauma scars (LIVE): a body hurt by an authority figure routes future AUTHORITY events through a sensitised filter that never normalises without deliberate reconsolidation.

PDU:VAD deltasubstrate:a[i,3] · a_base · B[i] 12×12 + scars
live state
valence−0.18
arousal0.41
scars active2

What this layer does

Every world event hits the substrate as a 12-dimensional feature vector (valence, arousal, threat, social, self-relevance, control, novelty, certainty, familiarity, fairness, achievement, gain-loss). The per-agent B-matrix filter runs ê = tanh(B · e) — your perceptual filter, shaped by genetics, prenatal cortisol, trauma scars. Then the filtered vector updates VAD affect with appraisal-driven Δvalence, Δarousal, Δdominance.

This is the Component Process Model (Scherer) expressed as a vector + a per-agent perceptual filter (B-matrix). Two agents can experience the identical world event as opposite emotions because their B-matrices weight the feature dimensions differently.

PDU · VAD delta

typeVAD (valence/arousal/dominance) update perceptual filterê = tanh(B · e) · 12-dim event → 3-dim affect consumed byschemas · DMN · decision temperature
OSI parallel:presentation — the layer that translates raw world bytes into the emotional encoding the rest of the stack speaks
·
BAND I · SUBSTRATEbefore language, before choice, before memory
L 3
III
OSI · L2
Neurochemistry · brain-heart-gut-HPA + hormonesBIO_MORNING · order 0–25 · P1 + P47 · +9 v2 overlays

~50 bio/reward/gut/epi/heart fields. Cortisol, serotonin, dopamine, GABA, BDNF, oxytocin & vasopressin (LIVE), endocannabinoids, prolactin, gut-brain axis, HRV, sleep, T/E/P. The body's MAC layer.

PDU:chemical / hormone statesubstrate:~50 fields + HPA cascade + ECS + gut-brain + 28-day cycle
live state
cortisol0.39
serotonin0.50
cycle phaseluteal d21

What this layer does

Twelve neurochemical arrays running every tick before any decision: cortisol/CRH (HPA cascade), serotonin, dopamine (tonic + phasic), norepinephrine, ACh, GABA, glutamate, endorphins, BDNF. Plus heart-rate variability, sleep debt, gut microbiome diversity. Plus sex hormones (P47): testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, libido, 28-day cycle phase, postpartum estrogen crash. What an agent ate three weeks ago silently sets their decision temperature today.

The depth-expansion overlays add sleep architecture (chronotype, bedtime procrastination), weather (SAD substrate), exercise/fitness, healthcare depth (chronic conditions, medication adherence), injury (cardiac-trigger pathway), compulsive content gating, fertility treatment, HOT_FLASH menopause emission.

The full bio substrate is now LIVE: the endocannabinoid system (K_ECS_ENABLED=1), prolactin (K_PROLACTIN_ENABLED=1), and the gut-brain axis (gut diversity / inflammation / permeability; cortisol→gut 0.010, gut→serotonin 0.050), plus an HPA sensitivity floor (0.15) and working memory. Oxytocin and vasopressin run as live ligands feeding bonding and mate-guarding.

PDU · chemical frame

typearray of bounded scalars cascadesubstances → gut → heart → brain → HPA → ECS → sleep recovery consumed byaffect · schemas · decision temperature · bonding (mutual-libido) cross-generationcortisol crosses placenta → newborn HPA baseline
OSI parallel:data link — the protocol that wraps every chemical signal in a frame the next layer can read
L 2
II
OSI · L1
Epigenetics · expression driftDAY_END/4–5 · P49 + M5-D

Same genome, different brain. Chronic cortisol upregulates 5-HTT, suppresses BDNF. The smoke that remembers what the body doesn't say.

PDU:expression multipliersubstrate:8 brain loci × chronic 30/365-day EMAs
live state
epi expression0.97
cortisol_3650.31
5-HTT mod×1.04

What this layer does

The "culture rewrites hardware" mechanism is already real — not aspirational. 30-day and 365-day cortisol EMAs durably re-weight gene expression: BDNF down-regulates under chronic stress (depression substrate), FKBP5 stress-sensitizes, OXTR up-regulates from early-life warmth (age < 7 critical window), 5-HTT shifts toward the anxious phenotype. Identical twins separated at birth diverge here.

Narrow: only ~4 of 32 loci respond, floor 0.70. But the channel exists end-to-end, including across generations (prenatal maternal cortisol → child HPA baseline is part of L1 init).

PDU · expression mod

typemultiplier on gene expression accumulationEMA · 30-day acute · 365-day chronic canonical phenomena"twins, different lives" · trauma sensitization · attachment
OSI parallel:physical — the slow re-wiring of the wire itself, year by year
L 1
I
OSI · L1
Deep Genetics · 128 inherited lociinit — once at conception · P46 · prenatal init pass

The wire. Substrate-of-substrate. The configuration was already finished before you were born. Mendelian recombination from two parents + per-locus mutation + prenatal cortisol crossing the placenta.

PDU:allele · setpointsubstrate:128 loci · diploid · sex chromosomes · X-linked · birth defects
live state
loci128
HPA setpoint+0.08
5-HTTshort variant

What this layer does

Per-agent gene arrays: body × 32, brain × 32, health × 32, cognitive × 16, personality × 16. Mendelian recombination at spawnChild (reproduction.ts:68). Sex chromosomes (XX/XY), X-linked inheritance, mutation, birth defects. Mendelian inheritance from both parents — not a single-parent blend. The detailed genetic substrate (P46, 2026-05) is what made the "covert vulnerable narcissism configuration is heritable" claim formally testable.

Prenatal programming is folded in here as an init-only pass: maternal cortisol crosses the placenta, setting the newborn's HPA baseline before the lungs draw air. Scars and birth defect flags also seed at conception. The configuration was already finished before you were born.

PDU · allele

type128-locus genome + sex chromosomes inheritanceMendelian recombination · per-locus mutation prenatal initmaternal cortisol → HPA setpoint · scars · OXTR seed consumed byevery bio op · L2 epi · L3 hormones · L4 B-matrix
OSI parallel:physical — the literal hardware on which everything else runs

An event encapsulated on its way up — all fourteen wrappings.

A world event hits the substrate at L1 and propagates upward, each layer adding its framing. By the time the narrator at L14 says "he thinks I'm difficult," the original event has been wrapped twelve times beneath the words.

L1 →
allele · prenatal5-HTT short variant · HPA setpoint +0.08 from maternal stress in utero
L2 →
epi5-HTT expression 1.22 · BDNF down-regulated · chronic_cortisol_365 = 0.31
L3 →
neurochemcortisol 0.41 · serotonin damped · luteal progesterone elevated · sleep_debt 0.23
L4 →
affectB·e amplifies THREAT diagonal · Δvalence −0.21 · Δarousal +0.34
L5 →
schemaAUTHORITY fires 0.74 · stored valence target −0.42 · pulls mood deeper
L6 →
episodesalience 0.81 · trauma-flag candidate · pinned for sleep replay
L7 →
cue-fieldoffice + Wednesday + person_X → 2-hop schema fire on AUTHORITY
L8 →
relationalrel_attention_balance tilts −0.04 on partner edge · STRAIN EMA ticks up · ATTENTION_ASYMMETRY armed
L9 →
H-mapcumulativeValence[i,j] += −0.003 · count +1 · affinity() symmetrises before consumption
L10 →
reward · K=1dopamine RPE pulse fired · oxytocin ligand +0.08 on bonding event · reward_wanting updated (Berridge gain 0.4)
L11 →
group · K=0group_id 7 inherited from mother (would route in-group BELONGING at K=1) — inert
L12 →
culturallocation_charge −0.02 (this room remembers tension) · BEAUTY_IDEAL meme exposure
L13 →
econ · spatialmacro tightness 0.62 · rent stable · workplace occupancy 87%
L14 →
narrator + action"he thinks I'm difficult, doesn't he" · softmax samples WITHDRAW (P=0.34)
v2 → now · the depth program that became the project

Twenty-one depth-expansion overlays plugged into the existing fourteen layers.

The layer count did not move. The substrate stack stopped at L14 by design — widening ACTION_COUNT is calibration-load-bearing. So every post-P52 addition is an overlay: an MW.* module or GATE detector that reads existing substrate, writes a small bitflag/EMA of its own, and emits new EventKinds. Each one ships byte-identical at K=0, then gets independently gated to ACTIVE under the 16-seed Flight Director.

307
operator files
across 33+ subdirectories
91/91
wishlist modules
SHIPPED
381+
behaviours catalogued
(SUBSTRATE_EXISTS class)
77
behaviours BLOCKED
(per last --classify, 2026-05-27)
~425
EventKinds
(narrative atoms)
16/16
16-seed FD
0 new CRITICAL on enables
L1 Genetics +1 handshake
  • MW.faith handshakeK=0 gatedReceptivity-filtered inherited faith over an existing locus; enable is GATE-F sign-off.
L3 Neurochemistry +7 overlays
  • MW.sleep_architectureK=1 activeChronotype, sleep quality, bedtime procrastination over sleep_debt.
  • MW.weatherK=1 activeContinuous temperature + SAD cohort substrate.
  • MW.exercise_fitnessK=1 activeExercise-pattern classification over hobby substrate.
  • MW.healthcare_depthK=1 activeChronic conditions, medication adherence, insurance, healthcare debt.
  • MW.compulsive_contentK=0 gatedDigital-content compulsion substrate (behavioural-addiction class).
  • MW.injuryK=1 activeCardiac-trigger pathway + scar conversion; via rng.derive('injury',...).
  • GATE-INSOMNIAK=1 activeEmit-only INSOMNIA_EPISODE at sleep_debt ≥ 0.40 w/ 7-day refractory.
L3 Sex hormones +2 overlays
  • MW.repro HOT_FLASHK=1 activeVasomotor symptoms over existing repro cycle; emit-only bitflag latch on post-menopausal cohort.
  • MW.fertility_treatmentK=0 gatedIVF/ART cycle substrate (4 bio fields, 2 operators, FERTILITY_TX EventKind).
L4 Affect & Appraisal +2 ambient couplings
  • CA-2 leisure satietyK=0.10Foreground-discriminant ambient: PURSUE_HOBBY writes leisure_satiety the others can't reach.
  • CA-4 belongingK=0.30Ambient n[belonging] coupling; the FIRST non-foundational baseline to IMPROVE bondRate floor.
L14 Identity narrative +3 social-texture
  • TIE_DROPPED narratableemit-onlyRelationships quietly lapsing; surfaces in the biography stream.
  • DYAD_SENTIMENTemit-onlyPeriodic warm/close/strained/hostile readout from the H-map.
  • BOND_MILESTONEemit-onlyRomantic-bond arc band crossings, emitted per-agent.
L14 DMN narrator +1 read-side feature
  • Tell-Life-Story (LLM)display-onlyReads the persisted biography, builds a bounded prompt, streams a third-person life story from a local deepseek-r1:14b. Read-side. Calibration-neutral. Byte-identical.
L14 Decision & execution +5 CP-1 couplings yielded
  • K_DEP_CRAVING0.04 → 0.06CP-1-REOPEN YIELDED_PEAK — strongest yield: bondRate +0.0268.
  • K_HUNGER_NEED_COUPLING0.50 → 0.65CP-1-REOPEN YIELDED_CONSERVATIVE; K=0.80 trades poorly.
  • K_HYGIENE_NEED_COUPLING0.50 → 0.65CP-1-REOPEN YIELDED_CONSERVATIVE; K=0.80 reverses signal.
  • K_BEAUTY_SELFWORTH_COUPLING0.25 → 0.30CP-1-REOPEN YIELDED_BISECTED; K=0.35 band-exit, bisected back.
  • K_UPKEEP_NEED_COUPLING0 → 0.10CP-1-REOPEN YIELDED_CONSERVATIVE; K=0.25 non-monotonic.
L12 Cultural Substrate +14 world overlays · 2 S2 activations
  • MW.cityscapeK=1 active12 new venue subkinds: NIGHTCLUB, DAYCARE, PHARMACY, GAS_STATION, BANK, SALON, COMMUNITY_CENTER, FARMERS_MARKET, VETERINARIAN, FUNERAL_HOME, PARK_PLAYGROUND, BEACH.
  • MW.household_dynamicsK=1 activeArrangement, chore load, pooled wealth.
  • MW.food_systemK=1 activeFood supplies, cooking skill, dietary pattern, food security risk.
  • MW.city_economyK=1 activeMacro business cycle, inflation, rent index, housing index, labor tightness + per-agent housing.
  • MW.education_depthK=1 activeAcademic performance, exam anxiety, track, cheating, student-loan debt.
  • MW.financial_lifeK=1 activeSavings, debt total, financial stress, financial literacy.
  • MW.hobbies_depthK=1 activeHobby milestones over existing hobby_skill.
  • MW.commute_depthK=1 activeMode / duration / vehicle substrate over commute.
  • MW.news_informationK=1 activeNews / gossip / civic accumulators over existing bus events.
  • MW.friendship_lifecycleK=1 activeDrift / cooling / deepened / reconnected lifecycle events over tie substrate.
  • MW.romance_depthK=1 activePhase tracking + courtship events.
  • MW.parenting_depthK=1 activeStyle assignment + child milestone emits.
  • MW.daycareK=1 activeChildcare arrangement assignment; CHILDCARE_ASSIGNED.
  • MW.employment_depthK=0 gatedShift schedules, tardiness, physical wear, job search, career progression.
  • LOC-MUSEUM-S2S2 ACTIVEK_MUSEUM_VENUE_COUNT=1 · bondRate 0.4283 → 0.4420 — a real re-baseline under 16-seed GREEN.
  • LOC-THEATER-S2S2 ACTIVEbondRate held 0.4412 · theater.show PARTIAL 2.19%.
DISCIPLINE

Every overlay above ships behind a K_*_ENABLED switch checked before any state read, so K=0 is a byte-identical no-op. The 16-seed Flight Director runs after wiring; if any of 18 calibration means shifts band, the overlay ships inert with a documented structural-fix path. Never tuned to force an effect. Of the 21 shipped this cycle: 13 ACTIVE byte-identical, 4 ACTIVE with measured calibration improvement, 4 INERT pending dedicated bisection programs, 2 S2-activated under sign-off.

v3 · above the fourteen — what shipped 2026-05-24 and what's next

Three more layers on top of the stack. Plus a runtime introspection lane.

The fourteen-layer substrate above is the canonical stack. Sessions 13–15 added new substrate at the top — and a runtime introspection lane that runs last in the tick. L15 is now LIVE (temporal self + the inner-life stack it anchors); L16 is substantially LIVE (meaning fields populate; lifespan affect F1/F2 run, oracle 4.25/5). L18 Emergence Detector is live at K=1, quarantined behind an outside-SCHEMA contract that keeps the 18-metric mean gate byte-identical.

L15 Temporal Self K=1 LIVE

Carstensen's subjective time horizon.

Per-agent Float32 subjective_time_horizon shrinks with age, illness state, recent-loss event count, and L11 group cohort effects. Once enabled at S2-A, it weights the L7 decision temperature: a seventy-year-old facing the same options as a twenty-five-year-old samples differently because their horizon is shorter — the well-replicated socioemotional selectivity effect. Lowest-risk single-knob in the next implementation queue; recommended first ship.

adds1 Float32 array · L7 decision-temperature weighting (S2-A pending)
replaces"chronological age drives decisions" with "perceived horizon does"
unlocksmidlife crisis cluster · time-discounting drift · late-life relational repair priority · positivity effect
L16 Meaning / Purpose PARTIAL LIVE

Steger MLQ presence + search.

Per-agent meaning_presence + meaning_search — two Float32 fields drawn from identity, episode store, and L11 group_id substrate. Modulates L7 decision temperature and affect baseline. Without it, late-life despair has no anchor to compare against. Designed against the Steger Meaning in Life Questionnaire four-quadrant model.

adds2 Float32 fields · L7 decision-temp + affect-baseline modulation
readsidentity certainty · episode store · L11 group_id
unlocksexistential despair · purpose-driven recovery · meaning-crisis transitions · midlife reorientation
L18 Emergence Detector K=1 LIVE

Multi-scale runtime classifier. Quarantined, read-only.

The live mirror of the offline 16-seed Flight Director. Five detector types — catalog_state · stat_anomaly · cycle · cascade · phenomenon — with 26 per-agent metrics and a triad/clique scale via clique_iterator.ts reading L11 group_id. All det_* fields are outside SCHEMA — not in hashState — so K=1 stays byte-identical to K=0 on the 18-metric mean gate. Runs DAY_END:90, last in the tick.

adds~30 det_* fields outside SCHEMA · 5 detector types + 26 metrics + 10 phenomenon templates · live UI ticker
gate stateK_EMERGENCE_DETECTOR_ENABLED=1 since 2026-05-25 · OUTSIDE-SCHEMA contract is the safety guarantee
templatestrauma_bonding · honeymoon_cycle · learned_helplessness · midlife_crisis · 6 more multi-substrate signatures
The substrate-gap queue · built out · 91/91 modules shipped

The full plan inventory. The 42-plan queue has since been substantially built out.

The substrate-gap queue that stood at 42 plans in sessions 13–15 has since been substantially built out. As of 2026-06-05, all 91 wishlist modules reached SHIPPED — the first time in project history. The current frontier is oracle-measured depth, not breadth. The tiers below are kept as a record of how the queue was organised by dependency.

TIER 1Master integrators (research convergences)
  • PSAM Sapolsky 4-axis stressor appraisal (predictability/control/outlet/social_support); multiplies into HPA cascade at S2-A
  • Window of Tolerance Siegel/Schore/Gerhardt per-agent regulatory band — wot_lower/wot_upper/ofc_capacity + 3 EventKinds
  • Glucocorticoid Cascade Sapolsky chronic-HPA hippocampal atrophy half-loop; long-horizon emergence (≥10-year)
  • Attachment 2D Hazan-Shaver anxiety × avoidance — replaces 1-D SCHEMA.ATTACHMENT slot at S2-B
TIER 2High-value distinct phenomena
  • L15 Temporal Self Carstensen subjective time horizon — scope-doc-ready, lowest-risk first ship
  • L16 Meaning / Purpose Steger MLQ presence + search; modulates L7 + affect baseline
  • Attunement Tick Tronick 0–2yr caregiver contingent-response peak tracker; seeds WoT + Attachment-2D at age 2
  • ACE Tracker Felitti 10-category accumulator — ace_score u8 + 10-bit category bitmask; frozen at age 18
  • Defense Cascade Kozlowska 5-stage neuroception (normal → arousal → fight-flight → freeze → tonic immobility → collapsed)
  • Frontal Maturation Sapolsky+Casey dual-system; sigmoid midpoint 18, plateau 25 — gates P34 dual-process
  • Otherness / Mystery Perel erotic-intelligence over-familiarity decay; closes "dead bedroom" cluster
  • Depression Multifactor 3-factor monoamine/disconnection/adversity model; refactors mh_depression accumulator
TIER 3Distinct phenomena
  • Learned Helplessness Seligman 1967 + Maier 2016 reformulation — agency is what gets LEARNED, default ~0.6
  • Challenge T Sapolsky testosterone refactor — T as challenge multiplier, not baseline adder (Wingfield 1990)
  • Social Pain Eisenberger dACC/AI neural overlap with physical pain
  • Stereotype Content Model Fiske warmth × competence 4-quadrant out-group cognition; depends on L11
  • Compliance Heuristics Cialdini 6 principles + Milgram baseline; per-agent susceptibility vector
  • Flow State Csíkszentmihályi + Mosing autotelic-personality heritability
  • Berridge Wanting / Liking Incentive salience vs hedonic pleasure split — required for anhedonia + grief
  • Mating System Buss/Chivers/Schmitt sex-distributed strategy; per-agent strategy distribution
  • Tend-and-Befriend Taylor 2000 sex-differentiated stress response; OT cortisol dampening
  • Psych Flexibility ACT — psychological_flexibility + Schwartz 8-dim values vector
  • Interoception Barrett/Seth — accuracy + sensibility; couples to affect calculation
  • Power Inhibition Per-tie rel_power_differential on L8 stride; BAS/BIS asymmetry
  • Mentalization ToM accuracy + granularity scalars; extension of P50 DMN
  • Sex-Differentiated Sex-modulated rel_intimacy gate; female-config arousal
  • Social Comparison Festinger lateral/downward; reference-group filter; extension of envy.ts
TIER 4Process substrates + content
  • PROC-1 Grief Stroebe-Schut dual-process + Klass continuing bonds; transitions L8 tie state on partner death
  • PROC-2 Embodied Aging Allostatic-load slow accumulator; separate from chronological age
  • Erikson Resolution 8-stage developmental vector; each stage can re-open under life events
  • SDT Autonomy Per-action attribution + autonomy_satisfaction — missing autonomy in need stack
  • Post-Sex Neuro Prolactin + oxytocin pulse; writes to L8 rel_intimacy at S2
  • Performance Layer Hochschild surface acting; public-self vs private-self + surface_acting_load
  • Embodied Signaling Display style + proxemics + touch bonding rate (clothing/grooming/distance)
  • Money Meaning Klontz 4-script money psychology; class-correlated seeding via L11
  • Female Repro Resurgence Post-independence mate-value reassessment GATE; uses last_*_tick refractory
TIER 5Cultural / narrative scaffolds + low-risk
  • Life Script Berntsen-Rubin cultural life script — depends on L11 for group-conditional content
  • Narrative Archetypes Disney / hero's journey / chosen-one / "toxic but passionate" / friend-group templates
  • Moral Foundations Haidt 6-dim weights (care/fairness/loyalty/authority/sanctity/liberty); depends on L11
  • Awe Keltner-Haidt awe/self-transcendence substrate; soft-depends on L11
  • Play / Humor HUMOR_SHARED on reciprocated affect; Duchenne vs strategic humor
  • Trauma Transmission Generational trauma via dual-channel parenting; extension of P49
  • Family Pressure Adult-child AUTHORITY-schema reactivation; depends on L8 + L12 Life-Script

Implementation order runs lowest-calibration-risk first. Recommended first ship is L15 Temporal Self — a single new field on existing substrate, one knob to flip, template-pattern for everything that follows. Then the other substrate-only Tier-2 plans (embodied aging · interoception · psych flexibility · Erikson resolution · SDT autonomy · embodied signaling · L16 meaning · play/humor · awe · performance layer · money meaning) in any order, since none depend on each other.

v3 · the frontier moved up

What was designed-not-built shipped. The new frontier is further up.

The v2 frontier — L8 relational ledger, L10 reward physics, L11 group identity — is no longer frontier. L8 and L10 ship at K=1 LIVE (dopamine RPE, oxytocin, vasopressin all live; only variable-ratio still gated); L11 keeps its in/out-group bias at K=0 inert; an emergence detector runs last in the tick at K=1 quarantined-and-byte-identical. And the panel that was designed-not-built a year ago — L15 temporal self, L16 meaning — is now live and substantially live. The frontier kept climbing.

L8 Relational Ledger K=1 LIVE

The missing per-dyad asymmetric layer. Live.

Per-tie EMA accumulators — rel_attention_balance, rel_strain, rel_intimacy — carry the directional signal each direction independently. Five narratable EventKinds emit from social/relational_resolve.ts at DAY_END:14 under a tie-age guard. The affinity() symmetrisation that was the spine of the gap is structurally replaced. PR #23, K=1 ACTIVE.

added4 fields per tie-slot · 5 EventKinds · tie-age guard
emitsATTENTION_ASYMMETRY · EMOTIONAL_NEGLECT_FELT · NUMBNESS_ONSET · SKIN_HUNGER · RELATIONAL_CYCLE_MARK
gate stateK_RELATIONAL_LEDGER_ENABLED=1 · migration_baseline re-captured at K=1
unlockedcontempt cascade · demand-withdraw · skin hunger · validation-driven affair (S2 consumers separately gated)
L10 Reward Physics K=1 LIVE

The trauma-bond mechanism. Dopamine RPE, oxytocin, vasopressin live; only variable-ratio gated.

Dopamine RPE, oxytocin and vasopressin are now LIVE; the brain_axis.ts branch carries a true reward-prediction-error signal (Berridge wanting/liking, K=0.4) plus oxytocin/vasopressin couplings. reward_physics_legacy_equivalence.test.ts still guards the K=0 parity path. Only S3 variable-ratio — the trauma-bond lever — remains under sign-off.

added4 reward arrays · gated brain_axis branch · legacy-parity test
gate stateK_REWARD_PHYSICS_ENABLED=1 · only variable-ratio (S3) pending sign-off
unblocks (on enable)trauma bonding · limerence · honeymoon cycle · codependency · break-up→re-turn
L11 Group Identity K=0 INERT

Persistent multi-group membership. Wired, inert.

Per-agent group_id (Uint16) + group_bitmask (Uint32) ship at K=0 — zero-init never written. Founder seed and spawnChild mother-inheritance at ~90% are gated and ready. S2-A flips on the in/out-group logit bias at the existing decision.ts:287 schema-bias seam. S2-B is the BELONGING discriminator-bit split. S2-C clique promotion rides L8 rel_intimacy.

addedgroup_id Uint16 · group_bitmask Uint32 · spawnChild inheritance
gate stateK_GROUP_IDENTITY_ENABLED=0 · S2-A/B/C pending separate sign-offs
unblocks (on enable)tribalism · in/out-group bias · neighborhood opportunity inheritance · coalition competition
L18 Emergence Detector K=1 LIVE

Multi-scale runtime classifier. Quarantined, read-only.

The live mirror of the offline 16-seed Flight Director. Five detector types — catalog_state, stat_anomaly, cycle, cascade, phenomenon — with 26 per-agent metrics, a triad/clique scale and ten named phenomenon templates. All det_* fields are outside SCHEMA — not in hashState — so K=1 stays byte-identical to K=0 on the 18-metric mean gate. Runs DAY_END:90, last in the tick.

added~30 det_* fields outside SCHEMA · 4 base + clique scale + 10 phenomenon templates · live UI ticker
gate stateK_EMERGENCE_DETECTOR_ENABLED=1 · OUTSIDE-SCHEMA contract is the safety guarantee
consumesevent bus + agent state stream (read-only) + L11 group_id for clique scale
L15 Temporal Self K=1 LIVE

Carstensen's subjective time horizon.

Per-agent subjective_time_horizon shrinks with age and identity certainty. Once enabled at S2-A, it weights the L7 decision temperature: a seventy-year-old facing the same options as a twenty-five-year-old samples differently because their horizon is shorter. Lowest-risk single-knob in the next implementation queue; recommended as the first S2 ship of the substrate-gap program.

add1 Float32 array · L7 decision-temperature weighting (S2-A pending)
stageS2 scope-doc complete; lowest calibration-risk class; template for further Tier-2 ships
unlockssocioemotional selectivity · time-discounting drift with age · late-life relational repair priority
L16 Meaning / Purpose PARTIAL LIVE

Steger MLQ presence + search.

Per-agent meaning_presence + meaning_search — two Float32 fields drawn from existing identity, episode store, and L11 group_id substrate. Modulates L7 decision temperature and affect baseline. Without it, late-life despair has no anchor to compare against. Designed against the Steger MLQ four-quadrant model.

add2 Float32 fields · L7 decision-temp + affect-baseline modulation (S2-A pending)
readsidentity certainty · episode store · L11 group_id (sense-of-belonging)
unlocksexistential despair · purpose-driven recovery · meaning-crisis transitions · midlife reorientation
THE LOOP IS STILL OPEN

For a model that claims evolutionary determinism, the reproduction loop must close. Vertical transmission is STRONG — children inherit genes (Mendelian recombination), schemas (0.30 weight), personality + affect baseline, prenatal cortisol & scars, faith, and now — via L11 inert spawn-inheritance — their mother's group_id at ~90%. Differential reproduction is still WEAK — conception remains K_BASE × fertility[i] × fertility[partner] × contraMult; there is no status, mate-value, or strategy term.

The evolutionary layer is presently descriptive, not selective. Closing the loop — coupling status / mate-value → conception so fitness-relevant phenotypes out-reproduce over long runs — is Phase 2.2 of the infrastructure spec. Explicitly deferred. Calibration-load-bearing. Long-horizon validation required.

Full breakdown of the eight evolutionary algorithms beneath the drives, the DMN cover-story divergence, the covert-vulnerable-narcissism acid test, and the 26-plan queue live in the architecture frontier section →

Where the analogy breaks.

No metaphor is perfect. Network protocols gave F.A.T.E. its vocabulary. Here is where the parallel ends — said honestly, so the metaphor does not get carried further than it earns.

  1. DISA · 01

    OSI is a design specification. Engineers wrote it before building the stack. F.A.T.E.'s layers were not designed. They were stacked one at a time, against the resistance of the calibration gate, because the emergence above demanded one more board of substrate beneath it. The model is bottom-up evolved, not top-down specified. The fourteen is empirical, not architectural.

  2. DISA · 02

    OSI layers are swappable. Ethernet at L2 can be replaced with Wi-Fi without rewriting TCP. F.A.T.E. layers are not. The narrator at L14 cannot be replaced with a different narrator without changing every layer above the chemistry. The body has one narrator. It was the narrator the substrate produced.

  3. DISA · 03

    OSI is bidirectional and symmetric. Data flows up and down via the same path. F.A.T.E. has bidirectional flow too — schemas pull bio state, plasticity updates lower layers — but the narrator at L14 cannot send a packet down to L1 that overrides the genome. The upward path is interpretation. The downward path is configuration. Free will would require a third path that does not exist.

  4. DISA · 04

    OSI peer-to-peer is time-symmetric. Both endpoints speak the same protocol throughout the session. F.A.T.E. peers are asymmetric in time. The L14 you who reads this is talking to the L14 you who will exist in five minutes. That future-you's substrate has been measurably altered by the act of reading. The peer is not the same peer the conversation started with.

  5. DISA · 05

    OSI has formal layer-skipping protocols for efficiency. F.A.T.E. forbids layer-skipping by Architecture Invariant 11. No module may bypass a layer to influence another directly. Schemas write through affect. Hormones reach decision via bio. The discipline is what keeps the emergence honest.

  6. DISA · 06

    OSI has no equivalent of L9 episodes, L10 cue field, or L14 culture. These are pure F.A.T.E. additions — memory architecture and cross-agent diffusion that the original network model never needed. Where the parallel ran out, we kept building.

Since this stack was drawn · five live systems

What the depth program added on top of the fourteen.

The stack above is the substrate. These five systems are what now runs through it — the work that took the project from breadth to oracle-measured depth. Each opens with the plain version, then the mechanism.

The Inner-Life Stack

At any moment a real mind has something on it. We model that directly.

A 23-topic det_preoccup_* competition each half-hour, grounded in episodic memory + neurochemistry with habituated decay; plus a tonic det_bond_presence channel so loved ones surface without winning the foreground. Oracle arc: 1.0/F → 3.0/C → A.

The Tag / Narration Scaffold

Every act carries the true story and the agent's cover story.

K_ACTION_TAGS_ENABLED=1. Each action is tagged bright / dark / relational / discharge, with Mode-O (truth) and Mode-C (confabulation) narration hints. The soul-gap between them is readable and oracle-scored 5/5 — the soul-gap thesis made operational.

The Lifespan / Developmental Arc

Agents change across a lifetime — not just hold a state.

Developmental wave W5-A / W5-C / W5-F (child skill-mastery, late-life wisdom buffer) and the lifespan affect trajectory: belonging-deficit → depression (F1) and an allostatic mood-setpoint integrator (F2), oracle 4.25/5. Depression is a moving floor, not an event.

The Oracle / Validation Stack

Passing the statistics isn't the same as being believable.

A separate AI reads what each agent actually thinks and does and grades whether it feels like a real person. Three tiers (deterministic invariant registry · DeepSeek judge · human Mission Controller) plus the inner-life, chemical-trace and soul-debugger oracles. That score, not the telemetry, decides whether a mechanism goes live.

The Policy-Gradient / Learning Loop

The agent now genuinely learns from outcomes.

K_POLICY_GRADIENT_ENABLED=1 (LR=0.01, PR #1735) closes the Step-6 loop that was frozen since init. The decision policy π updates every tick from dopamine reward-prediction error — the difference between sampling a fixed distribution and learning a changing one.

Fourteen layers. The bit at L1 was set before you were born. The sentence at L14 only arrives after — and now, for the first time, it arrives having actually learned from the one that came before.

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