AIM Framework glossary
Decoherence Trichotomy
Canonical definition
The Decoherence Trichotomy is the partition of Belief-domains into three regimes by the Decoherence Time that their Coupling Strength sets: the short-Decoherence-Time regime, where a live Referent re-imposes the Truth continuously and at low cost, so the domain stays truth-tracking (the Hard Truth regime, immediate failure-and-correction); the long-but-finite-Decoherence-Time regime, where a live Referent governs the domain but its verdict is buffered by stored capital, so certainty and Truth may diverge for a period before reality intrudes, sometimes catastrophically (the Soft Truth regime, accumulation-then-crisis); and the unbounded-Decoherence-Time regime, the truth-value-free domain of aesthetic norms, fashion, and taste, where no world-constraining signal exists, so a tightly coupled population drifts continuously without ever converging or decohering (the Aesthetic Drift Principle). The Decoherence Trichotomy is the Referent-governed backbone that the Hardness–Referent Matrix extends to the falsehood side.
Explanation
There are three kinds of belief-domain, told apart by how long reality takes to correct them. Some are checked constantly and cheaply, so they stay honest (hard facts). Some are checked only eventually, but savings, institutions, or momentum hold them steady for years until the correction finally lands, often all at once (slow-burning truths). And some are never checked at all, because there is nothing outside the group to check them against (matters of taste), so they simply drift forever.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.