2.10 From a target to a mechanism

The status-bearing dossier specifies what a creative episode must leave behind, but not how a system discovers such an extension. That is the next problem. Chapter 3 supplies local probes of a theory and its models; Chapter 4 makes the operations conducting those probes inspectable and trainable; and Chapter 5 states precisely which theory and model semantics a finite proposal changes. Together these chapters separate the local evidence for inadequacy from the global act of theory construction.

That separation remains in force throughout the book. A proposal engine may suggest a finite change, but neither local diagnosis nor fluent generation admits it. The creative claim belongs to the complete record: obstruction, finite realization, less-disruptive controls, package comparison, its presentation component when one exists, transport, novel consequence, and evidence independent of the proposal.

Nor does a silent observer certify completeness: the inherited probe language may be blind to the missing distinction. Chapter 3 therefore treats observability as declared experimental data, not as a property supplied by tangent structure.

. Can a system construct a theory that competent independent reasoners choose to retain because it organizes old knowledge, survives tests, and creates a fruitful space of new problems? This is a stronger target than producing a novel answer and a more operational target than declaring a model creative.