A definition
Knowledge is a claim with seven axes.
A claim is an object that carries — must carry, structurally — seven measurable properties at the moment it is used: when it is true, when it was recorded, when it is being asked about, at what resolution, over what domain, with what calibrated probability, from what source. Without the axes, you have text. With them, you have knowledge.
claim = ⟨ Vₜ, Tₜ, Rₜ, G, S, C, P ⟩
The shape of a claim · valid time, transaction time, reference time, granularity, scope, certainty, provenance
Why the axes are non-optional
The axes determine everything.
The seven axes are not decoration. They determine where the claim can live, how often it must be refreshed, at what granularity and scope the answer is valid, and what kind of confidence the answer is allowed to carry. Strip any axis and the claim becomes ambiguous about the question it was supposed to settle.
A string of tokens without these axes attached is not knowledge. It is data, or text, or output, or noise. The string may be useful for many things — pattern, structure, exposition — but it cannot stand as a verified factual claim until the axes are present.
What follows on this site is the working definition stated once, the seven axes specified one at a time, and the engineering consequences that follow when a system actually treats every claim as a seven-axis object — and the consequences that follow when it does not.
The shape
Seven axes describe a claim.
Three are temporal — when the claim is true, when it was recorded, and when the question is being asked. Two bound the claim’s reach — its resolution and its domain. Two ground the claim’s standing — the calibrated probability and the source.
Valid time
01 · WHEN IT IS TRUEthe interval during which the claim is true in the modeled reality
Transaction time
02 · WHEN IT WAS RECORDEDthe instant the claim entered the storage system
Reference time
03 · WHEN IT IS BEING ASKEDthe time relative to which the other two are interpreted
Granularity
04 · AT WHAT RESOLUTIONthe scale at which the claim is expressed
Scope
05 · OVER WHAT DOMAINthe universe of discourse the claim binds
Certainty
06 · WITH WHAT PROBABILITYthe calibrated probability the claim is true
Provenance
07 · FROM WHAT SOURCEwhere the claim came from, by what method, on what authority
The working pages
What the seven axes determine.
Four questions follow from the definition, and each has a page. Where the claim belongs. How it must be used. The contract that binds a reasoner that holds claims. The genealogy of how the definition came to be.
The temporal triad.
Valid time, transaction time, reference time. Why the three together are the load-bearing foundation of any working definition of knowledge.
Where the claim belongs.
What a claim’s axes say about where it can live. What may be compressed into a model. What must be retrieved fresh, with the axes intact.
How a claim must be used.
Two modes of confidence — from priors and from retrieval — are different epistemic states. A claim must declare which mode it came from, and a reasoner must label every assertion accordingly.
The reasoner’s epistemic contract.
What a reasoner is bound to do with the seven-axis definition: when to use weights, when to retrieve, what to label, and what the asymmetry is between rumination and assertion.
A way of saying it
Knowledge is transient.
Knowledge is free.
Knowledge should not be confined.
The confinement and compression of knowledge in any structure that strips time, context, and relevance creates the conditions for “Hallucination” — a feature of the approach, not a flaw.
Companion stacks
The object the other six handle.
The other six sites describe what systems do. This one describes what claims are. Compute, synthesis, data, state, communication, and memory all operate on knowledge claims; this site is the working definition of the object they carry.
Compute
258 primitives, 33 families.
Synthesis
The seven-axis synthesizer stack.
Data
The ten-axis data-system stack.
State
The nine-axis state stack.
Communication
The eleven-axis channel stack.
Memory
The eleven-axis retention stack.
Agent
Four axes · the actor and selection.
Stack
The overview · three names, one substrate.
Verify
Seven axes · joules per verified output.
OpenIE
The parent thesis.