The Ontology of Honesty Preprint
Abstract
This essay proposes a cross-domain descriptive vocabulary — real wakes, painted wakes, and honest boundaries — for distinguishing genuine structural traces from constructed appearances. A real wake is a trace left by a process that actually occurred: the element ratios from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the wear pattern on a used tool, the citation network of a body of research. A painted wake is a constructed appearance of a trace that was never left by the process it mimics: fabricated provenance, artificial patina, citation rings. An honest boundary is an explicit declaration of where one's knowledge, evidence, or authority ends. The vocabulary is descriptive, not prescriptive — it classifies structural features without dictating behavior. The essay develops each term through cross-domain examples and explores their relationship to the Infotropy research program's broader framework of persistence, records, and structural honesty.
Claims
- A descriptive vocabulary for structural honesty across domains
- Three defined terms: real wakes, painted wakes, and honest boundaries
- A descriptive ontology — classifies structural features without prescribing behavior
Non-Claims
- Does not prescribe behavior or moral rules
- Does not provide detection algorithms or automated methods