AIM Framework glossary
Self-Coupling Strength
Canonical definition
Self-Coupling Strength is the coupling strength parameter measuring the degree to which an Individual’s evidence base is endogenous to their own prior states through the memory-recall channel. Self-Coupling Strength is architecturally guaranteed to be greater than zero (Self-Coupling Permanence Principle), because recalled Beliefs arrive, through the Belief Register and the Observer that reads the Belief Register, at the Decision Hub, and common-currency integration in the Decision Hub treats recalled Beliefs and fresh perceptual inputs as indistinguishable evidence types, and memory recall cannot be suppressed to zero. Self-Coupling Strength is the baseline coupling from which all inter-agent coupling and institutional coupling are additive; the total coupling experienced by any Individual at any time is the sum of Self-Coupling Strength, interpersonal coupling, institutional coupling, and media coupling, where each term represents coupling through a distinct evidence channel.
Explanation
Self-Coupling Strength measures how much your Beliefs are shaped by your own prior thoughts rather than by new information from the outside world. Because your mind cannot tell the difference between remembering a thought and encountering new evidence, you are always at least partially influenced by your own previous conclusions. Other people, institutions, and media add coupling on top of this baseline, but interventions cannot reduce Self-Coupling Strength to zero, because they cannot stop you from remembering. This is why the Bayesian Self-Model identifies memory recall as the irreducible source of identity persistence, and why extreme identity disruption (encounter with radically different worldviews) produces the architectural perturbation described in the Self-Model Disruption Principle.
Epistemic status
Parameter. Derived from Source Opacity (Axiom 3), Common-Currency Integration (Axiom 2), and the modality-blindness extension of Source Opacity.
Derivation
Chapter 15, Section 15.3; Chapter 14, Section 14.5.4; Chapter 14, Appendix 14A.7; Appendix A, Section A.5.6.
Also in the entry
Notation Statement. Denoted κself in formal equations, derivations, operational-definition blocks, appendices, figure and table headings, and the definitions database. Written in full as “Self-Coupling Strength” in running prose. On first prose appearance in any given document the English term may be followed by a parenthetical gloss of the form “Self-Coupling Strength (κself)”; a second parenthetical gloss of the same form is permitted at the first prose occurrence of the term in the main body after the formal definitions section, as a courtesy to readers who skip front-matter. All subsequent prose occurrences within that document use the English term only.
Related terms
- Coupling Strength
- Self-Coupling Permanence Principle
- Source Opacity
- Decoherence Time
- Decision Hub
- Common-Currency Integration. See Chapter 14 (Quantum Epistemology) for the canonical derivation