soma(som)
State of mind. Made architectural.
Six positions on a closed ring. Each cycle witnessed.
§1 · The body problem
No part can prove itself.
Inside any unit on the ring, three things are observable: its root, its pointer, its tree. The fourth — the key by which its predecessor refers to it — exists outside.
No part of the system can prove its own existence to the system using only its internal elements. Identity is held by your predecessor. This is structural, not policy: the ring's directed topology makes self-certification impossible.
Topology, not policy. The ring is the proof.
OPUS §1 · Invariant 3 · Proposition 1
§4 · The SOMA ring
Six positions. One closed cycle.
Each unit answers one question. Each question is asked, answered, and committed exactly once per cycle. Then the ring returns to the start.
- FUWho am I?
- MUWhat is up?
- CUWhat comes next?
- OUWho are you?
- SUWhere are we?
- HUWhen do what?
The cycle returns. The ring closes itself.
OPUS §4 · Figure 3 · the SOMA ring
§9 · Temporal chain
Append-only awareness.
Each cycle's state cryptographically contains the previous. The present holds the past by reference; the future is a projection of the present.
No link can be altered without breaking every link downstream. Verification runs forward or backward to the genesis hash. Audit by topology, not by policy.
Memory is a past snapshot. Anticipation is a projected one. The chain holds both.
OPUS §9 · Figure 6 · temporal SOM chain