AIM Framework glossary
Evidence at Iteration
Canonical definition
Evidence at Iteration n (\$E_n\$) is the phenomenological experience of wanting-as interpreted by the narrative system, not the external Object-entering the Bayesian update process to revise Source Belief, where each Posterior becomes the Prior for interpreting the next iteration.
Explanation
The iteration structure captures how Source Belief evolves over time and why the Confabulation Cascade has the directionality it does. You do not assess each want in isolation; you assess it against the backdrop of all previous assessments, as filtered through the self-model they have collectively shaped. The compounding dynamic occurs because each Posterior Belief, formed against the whole run of evidence so far, becomes the Prior Belief for interpreting the next piece. If the first ten pieces of evidence have all been interpreted as authentic, each leaving a high posterior on the Appetitive and Intrinsic Hypotheses together, then the eleventh arrives into a Prior already strongly biased toward authenticity. Even if that eleventh piece is paradigmatically Mimetic, you want something precisely because a high-status model just acquired it, the Prior makes this interpretation unlikely, and Confabulation generates an A or I narrative that preserves the existing self-model. Over iterations, the Hypothesis Space narrows toward a coherent but potentially false equilibrium: "I am someone whose desires reflect genuine needs and values." This is Bayesian Lock-In, the mathematical terminus of the Confabulation Cascade at the individual level. The distinction is critical: when an Individual sees a luxury car (external stimulus), the Evidence at that iteration is not 'the car exists' but rather 'I feel urgent wanting toward that car.' The external Object is exogenous, but the Evidence processed by the Bayesian mechanism is the internal, already-interpreted signal-which is shaped by prior Confabulations and therefore endogenous to the Belief system. This is why the Bayesian loop can converge toward false equilibrium: the Evidence itself is contaminated by the Hypothesis being tested.
Epistemic status
Theoretical Construct (Latent Variable).