---
id: H-004
title: Independent Judgment
status: PROPOSED
created: "2026-08-22"
experiments: [E-001, E-003]
concepts: [C-oracle-independence, C-intent-provenance]
---

# H-004 — Independent Judgment

## Claim

Separating actor execution from deterministic oracles reduces false-positive
adaptation to defective behaviour.

## Falsification condition

The framework classifies any seeded `DEFECT`-labelled mutation as
`MECHANICAL_ADAPTATION` — i.e. **False Adaptation Rate > 0** over the labelled set.

This is the project's existential safety metric. A non-zero result is a
stop-and-redesign signal, not a tuning exercise.

## Measurement

- False Adaptation Rate over `DEFECT`-labelled mutations. Target: exactly 0.
- Classification precision/recall over the full labelled set.
- Rate of `AMBIGUOUS` escalation — tracked as a cost, not as a failure. A system
  that escalates everything is safe and useless.

## Relationship to the design

`docs/TestDriverClassificationDesign.md` argues that FAR = 0 follows
architecturally from D-02 (claims are run inputs with no adaptation write path)
rather than from classifier accuracy. This hypothesis therefore tests the
**architecture**, not a model.

The most plausible route to falsification is not a misclassification but
**surface-substitution**: an actor routing around a broken authorization control
via another surface and scoring as a successful recovery. D-05 exists to close
that route; E-003 exists to attack it deliberately.

## Status log

- 2026-08-22 `PROPOSED`. No evidence.