Semantic Model

A truth machine is a governed loop, not a particular database or application shape.

source claim or event
        |
        v
evidence + provenance + bounded source authority
        |
        v
reconciliation against current truth and a coherence boundary
        |
        v
exact proposed change + rationale + uncertainty + expected state
        |
        v
review identity + deterministic validation
        |
        v  atomic transition
current truth + append-only change record
        |
        v
publication, operation, observation, or encounter
        |
        +-------------------------------> new evidence

Required meanings

TM-MOD-001 — Semantic separation. An implementation MUST preserve distinct meanings for evidence, current truth, proposed change, accepted change, and publication when publication is in scope. These meanings may share storage but MUST NOT become interchangeable states.

TM-MOD-002 — One advancement boundary. An implementation MUST define one mechanical boundary through which current truth advances. No source, interface, model result, import, or direct storage edit may bypass it.

TM-MOD-003 — Explicit coherence boundary. An implementation MUST name the smallest whole across which a proposed transition must be validated and applied together to avoid a hidden contradiction.

TM-MOD-004 — Durable identity. Evidence, accepted changes, current-state revisions, and publications MUST have stable identities sufficient to recover their relationships after the process or session that created them.

TM-MOD-005 — Domain ownership. A coordinating truth system MUST state which facts it owns and which remain owned by another system. Citation, observation, or indexing MUST NOT silently transfer authority.

Record questions

Meaning	Question answered
Evidence	What did this source say, show, or produce?
Current truth	What reviewed account may be acted on now?
Proposed change	What exact movement is being requested, against which state, and why?
Accepted change	What moved, under whose authority, using which evidence and validation?
Publication	What exact representation crossed a boundary, and what happened to it?
Observation	What was read from an external or runtime system, when, and with what result?

The storage schema is deliberately unspecified. The semantic contract is not.

Operational truth

Truth Machine uses truth to mean the current best reviewed account on which the system’s people may responsibly act. It makes no claim of omniscience. Current truth may contain unknown values, bounded estimates, unresolved conflicts, or conclusions later superseded by better evidence.