AIM Framework glossary
Testimony Floor
Canonical definition
The Testimony Floor is the lower bound on the evidential down-weighting performed by Divergent-Path Pre-Loading: the channel attenuates the default evidential weight of expressed Belief toward a floor and never to reflexive dismissal of all testimony. The floor is entailed by the evidential asymmetry already established for Belief dynamics: direct observation, measurement, logical inference, and testimony from sources with no stake in the observer's Belief state remain reliable inputs to Bayesian updating, and testimony decohered against an accessible Referent (Truth-Tracked Regime) retains its earned weight. The Divergent-Path Prior discounts the unverified default, not the verified. The Testimony Floor is the Channel-level instance of the general result that Coupling Strength elimination is self-defeating and optimal Coupling Strength is domain-specific.
Explanation
Turning down the automatic trust you give to expressed opinions is not the same as trusting nothing. Reports that have been checked against reality (measurements, disinterested accounts, claims that survived testing) keep their force. The prior removes a default, not the possibility of evidence.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Result. Derived consequence of the evidential asymmetry of Belief dynamics (Chapter 13) and the Positive Mimesis Preservation / optimal-coupling result; bounds Divergent-Path Pre-Loading against over-application. Not an additional axiom.