ifc-0027

1.8.1 The readiness boundary

Acquisition may itself involve many tentative revisions: a learner segments a demonstration differently, retracts an inferred precondition, or asks a teacher for a contrast. These are changes to a candidate representation during bootstrapping. This book reserves accommodation for a later event: a registered maintained declaration is found inadequate, a finite change is constructed, and that change is independently admitted. The distinction is procedural rather than metaphysical, but it keeps the evidence ledger honest.

A provisional package is ready to initialize DIAL when it supplies three interfaces:

A realized base.: At least one current realization \(\widehat D_0\) is typed by the declaration, so local variation is variation of something explicit rather than movement in an unspecified latent space.
Observable obligations.: At least one declared relation, invariant, or universal property has an observer with stated semantics. Otherwise the system cannot distinguish structural failure from observer silence.
A revision boundary.: The maintained components, unresolved alternatives, admissible proposal language, and admission test are recorded. Otherwise a change cannot be classified as assimilation, proposal, or admitted accommodation.

This is a minimum interface, not a completeness claim. A weak initial sketch may omit precisely the concept that later learning must invent. It is usable when its omissions can become diagnosable, not when they have already been eliminated.