Theory Map

Theory Map

PIC uses five source theory names. The names are abstract, but each maps to a practical engineering role.

ECPT: Packet Flow And Phase Control

ECPT means Executable Capability Percolation Theory.

Plain-language role: it asks how useful checked work items can move through a fixed agent population and form reusable paths, closures, and certificate candidates.

In PIC, ECPT appears as:

• capability packets;
• packet promotion checks;
• effective packet graphs;
• closure diagnostics;
• execution-available paths;
• collective phase certificate candidates;
• phase acceleration plans.

ECPT does not prove real ASI. It provides protocol-relative checks over declared packets, agents, thresholds, and baselines.

BIT: Bottleneck Finding

BIT means Bottleneck Inversion Theory.

Plain-language role: it asks which missing witness, route, or check would unlock the most useful next work.

In PIC, BIT appears as:

• bottleneck reports;
• inversion candidates;
• missing witness diagnostics;
• route obligations;
• baseline comparison;
• residual-preserving next-task ranking.

BIT helps decide what to check next. It does not make missing evidence disappear.

TRC: Typed Trace Checking

TRC means Typed Reality Compilation.

Plain-language role: it turns action traces into typed records while keeping the boundary between trace structure and external-world truth visible.

In PIC, TRC appears as:

• trace adapter reports;
• tool trace normalization;
• action-boundary reports;
• tolerance and residual ledgers;
• cyber-physical frontier diagnostics.

TRC can structure a trace. It does not prove that the physical world, policy world, or oracle outcome is true.

SQOT: Attention And Queue Discipline

SQOT means Salience-Queue Occupation Theory.

Plain-language role: it tracks attention pressure, stale work, hazards, queue obstruction, and diagnostic reserve.

In PIC, SQOT appears as:

• salience queue diagnostics;
• obstruction reports;
• quarantine checks;
• rebalance plans;
• reserve checks.

SQOT is a scheduling and attention layer. It is not a truth layer.

ALT: Reusable Abstraction Value

ALT means Abstraction Liquidity Theory.

Plain-language role: it asks whether a reusable abstraction has enough checked value, transport support, lineage, telemetry, lifecycle handling, and hazard control to be treated as scoped capital.

In PIC, ALT appears as:

• abstraction token checks;
• liquidity certificates;
• negative-liquidity and deprecation reports;
• baseline refresh and reproduction reports;
• ALT-to-ECPT lift diagnostics;
• capital-impact reports.

ALT helps avoid treating a nice abstraction as reusable capital before the costs and hazards are counted.

How v0.5.0 Connects Them

Phase Ecology Lab brings the five layers into one local diagnostic flow:

agent reports
-> phase windows
-> effective packet graph
-> ECPT closure and path diagnostics
-> BIT bottleneck diagnostics
-> SQOT queue diagnostics
-> ALT lift diagnostics
-> TRC typed trace diagnostics
-> threshold and certificate candidates

Every step preserves residuals. New diagnostics are non-executing and do not silently turn open obligations into settled=true.

Residual Boundary

v0.5.0 completes the Phase Ecology Lab release contract, but it does not complete every external paper-level obligation.

The v0.5.0 audit keeps these residual counts visible:

Theory	Residual external obligations
ECPT	30
TRC	32
SQOT	15
ALT	54
BIT	0
Total	131

These are future implementation and verification candidates, not hidden settlement.