AIM Framework glossary
Observability
Canonical definition
Observability is the structure determining whose realised valuations and executed actions propagate into whose Salience field as observed Model signals. It plays two architecturally distinct roles in the fast valuation system: it governs the visibility of specific Model signals to observing Individuals, which enters the formalism as the Ignition Input, and it governs the strength of the feedback from realised valuation to environmental Salience, which enters as the Status feedback gain. Interventions on the first role are Class 1 Interventions and interventions on the second are Class 2 Interventions. At the network scale its between-Individual structure is the Observability Matrix, whose spectral radius sets the network Observability-channel contribution to loop gain.
Explanation
Observability is who gets to see whose wanting. What people can see others pursue feeds into what they themselves come to want, and what a person is seen to get feeds back into how much everyone else notices it. The same visibility also carries ordinary learning from others, so the aim is to govern it, not to abolish it. Accountability, information about conduct travelling outward from an office, is a different quantity and can stay high while Observability falls.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.