AIM Framework glossary
Source-Tagging
Canonical definition
Source-Tagging is the presence of source-of-origin information (A, I, or M) in the pre-integration channels prior to Common-Currency Integration, together with the reconstructive, post-integration inference by which an Individual re-attributes a source to an integrated wanting. Within the Transmission Window following a stimulus, source-specific circuits are active: homeostatic pathways generate A-signals, intrinsic reward systems generate I-signals, and mirror-neuron and social-comparison circuits generate M-signals, each carrying native source-identity at that stage. Common-Currency Integration then collapses the three inputs into a single Scalar, discarding the native source-labels (Source Opacity), and conscious awareness of the integrated wanting arrives only after the integration has occurred. Effective source-tagging in lived decision-making is therefore reconstructive rather than direct: the Individual applies conceptual instruments (the Two-Question Diagnostic), contextual cues, and I-Override to infer the probable source of an unlabelled signal. Reconstructed Source-Tagging is the precondition for reflective management of Mimetic escalation; without it, all desires present as undifferentiated urgency.
Explanation
Within the Transmission Window after a stimulus, source-specific circuits are active: hunger and safety pathways generate A-signals, intrinsic reward systems generate I-signals, and mirror-neuron and social-comparison circuits generate M-signals, all before these inputs are fed into the common-currency integration system. Conscious awareness of “I want X” typically comes online only later, around \~300–500 milliseconds, after this integration has already occurred. In principle, the brain could keep track of where a motivational signal came from: hunger circuits would generate A-desires for food and safety, intrinsic reward systems would generate I-desires for learning or creative work, and social comparison circuits would generate M-desires for status or copied goals. Source-tagging describes this idealized encoding of origin information before integration. However, the common-currency integration that occurs in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum collapses three unlike inputs into a single Scalar by a many-to-one map, and that map discards native source-labels. By the time the desire is phenomenologically felt as “I want X,” consciousness has direct access only to the integrated strength of wanting, not to its decomposition into A, I, and M. In practice, therefore, effective source-tagging at the level of lived decision-making is usually a reconstructive, post-integration process: the Individual uses conceptual tools (such as the Two-Question Diagnostic), contextual cues, and I-Override to infer “this is about bodily sufficiency,” “this is about a project I care about,” or “this is about keeping up with others,” even though the raw neural signal arrived unlabelled. In AIM, this reconstructed source-tagging is the precondition for any reflective control over Mimetic escalation over time: without it, all desires present as undifferentiated urgency; with it, the Individual can at least sometimes see which parts of the urgency are negotiable.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.