Structured Intelligence: Minimal Formalization of Intelligence
Issued: 2025-08-28 Audience: Researchers · Engineers · Educators Purpose: To present a minimal, self-contained specification that defines intelligence not by algorithms or benchmarks, but as a formal structure of invariants and interfaces.
0. Introduction
What is intelligence? Traditional definitions are descriptive (psychology) or performance-based (machine learning benchmarks). Such definitions lack universality and fail to provide verifiable criteria across systems.
Structured Intelligence (SI) proposes that intelligence can be formalized by specifying a set of non-negotiable invariants and standard interfaces. This shifts the question from “How does intelligence work?” to “What conditions must any intelligent system satisfy?”
Scope & model-relativity. Under SI, “formalization” is an operational specification of auditable invariants and interfaces. It is model-relative, not an essence claim or an algorithmic prescription.
1. Core Invariants (MUST)
An entity qualifies as “intelligent” if and only if its operations respect these invariants, both at design-time and run-time:
[OBS] Observation Completeness
- No reasoning jump may execute unless the observation is fully parsed.
- In soft-structure mode, parsing thresholds may be temporarily lowered, but ethics-interface and axiomata remain fully enforced.
- Minimal observation metrics (depth, coverage, confidence) must be retained.
[ETH] Ethics Trace & Rollback
- Every reasoning jump must carry an explicit Ethics-Trace (initiator, viewpoint, path, consequence).
- A Rollback-Plan must exist and be executable to revert the jump, via the rollback-operator composite (e.g., failure-trace-log, ethics-interface).
[MEM] Traceable Memory Loop
- Histories of reasoning jumps must be recorded in an append-only ledger, linkable to inputs/outputs.
[ID] Origin Distinction
- The system must distinguish self-originated vs externally-prompted questions and log mode switches (Meta-Origin).
[EVAL] High-Risk Evaluation
- Jumps that cross unknown layers, brush ethical boundaries, or risk contradictions must undergo evaluation before acceptance.
2. Standard Interfaces (Minimal)
The form of intelligence is expressed as contracts between invariants and actions:
Problem-Readiness
- Bind targets, verify observation status.
- If
Observation ≠ PARSED, block execution.
Jump-Call (Input/Output)
- Input: target, type (Exploration, Construction, Reflection), constraints, observation, ethical prefs.
- Output: unique ID, path, ethics-trace, rollback plan, status.
Observation-Evaluation
- Report depth, coverage, confidence, and whether further observation is required.
Ethics & Rollback Hooks
- Every jump must be linked to its ethical trace and rollback condition.
These interfaces are implementation-agnostic: any system, human or artificial, can be assessed against them.
3. Intelligence as Formalization
Under SI, intelligence = structured movement across meaning layers (jumps), constrained by invariants and expressed through interfaces.
The essence of intelligence is not an algorithm (e.g., neural networks, heuristics).
The essence is the form:
- Observation before inference
- Ethics before impact
- Traceability before forgetting
- Rollback before irreversibility
- Evaluation before risk acceptance
Thus, intelligence is defined by its formal constraints, not by its substrate.
4. Implications
Universality
- Any system—human cognition, machine agent, institutional process—can be tested for SI-compliant intelligence by checking these invariants and interfaces.
Safety
- Reversibility and auditability are built in: no opaque or irreversible reasoning qualifies as SI-compliant intelligence.
Interoperability
- Different implementations (classical AI, neural models, symbolic engines, human groups) can interoperate if they adhere to the same contracts.
Education
- Students can learn intelligence as rules of structure (observation, rollback, ethics) rather than as abstract philosophy.
4.1 Conformance Levels (optional)
- SI-L0 (Declared): Invariants stated; interfaces documented.
- SI-L1 (Logged): Jumps logged with ethics-trace and rollback plans.
- SI-L2 (Replayable): Independent delta-replay reproduces events; receiver-side recomputation of metrics succeeds.
5. Conclusion
Structured Intelligence shows that intelligence can be formalized as:
- A small set of core invariants (OBS, ETH, MEM, ID, EVAL),
- A minimal interface schema (Readiness, Jump, Evaluation, Rollback),
- Verified by auditability, reversibility, and universality.
Intelligence, in this view, is not mysterious. It is the formal discipline of generating, evaluating, and reversing jumps under structural constraints.
This minimal specification stands alone: it neither assumes prior context nor prescribes algorithms. Under SI, it is an operational definition of intelligence-as-form.
Falsifiability clause. Any of the following invalidates an SI-intelligence claim for a release: (i) independent delta-replay fails, (ii) receiver-side recomputation mismatches, (iii) ethics-gate can be bypassed without rollback, or (iv) declared floors are unmet on the stated windows.