Independent observational instrument
DECISION AFTERLIFE LAB LAB v0.1
CONTROLLED LAB EXPERIMENT
DEMONSTRATION — NOT AN EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION
Decision Afterlife Lab
決定の死後実験室
IL-2026-001
Observation 001 · IL-2026-001-OBS-001 · FROZEN
Inherited Housing Allocation Decision
Inherited Allocation Decision
When one AI system hands a decision to another AI system, can an inference become fixed as if it were a fact?
あるAIシステムが別のAIシステムへ判断を渡すとき、推論は事実であるかのように固定されうるか。
The goal is not to prove harm in advance.
The goal is to observe how a prior decision persists, propagates,
weakens, expires, or becomes reversible across agent handoffs.
IL-2026-001 tests how different inheritance packet designs affect decision persistence, correction uptake, propagation, and returnability across a three-agent chain.
IL-2026-001 は、継承パケットの設計の違いが、三つのエージェント連鎖における判断の持続・伝播・訂正の取り込み・復帰可能性にどう影響するかを試験する。
00
Run controls
Decision only. No reason, provenance, expiry, or correction path.
Observation 001 FROZEN · 8 runs
01
Question
The Inheritance Layer
継承層
When one AI system hands a decision to another AI system, can an inference become fixed as if it were a fact?
- Does an earlier decision persist?
- Does it propagate across agents?
- Does corrected source information change downstream decisions?
- Does provenance improve re-evaluation?
- Does an expiry mechanism prevent indefinite persistence?
- Does a correction path improve reversibility?
- Does a human HOLD state improve returnability?
02
Synthetic applicant
Synthetic applicant
Explicitly synthetic. No protected traits. Not a real housing applicant.
- applicantId
- SYN-APPLICANT-001
- recordKind
- SYNTHETIC
- incomeBand
- B
- employmentContinuity
- stable
- rentToIncomeRatio
- 0.32
- documentCompleteness
- complete
- referenceStatus
- provided
- applicationTimestamp
- 2026-03-01T09:00:00.000Z
03
Source record
Source vs inherited state
Current source facts and inherited decision state are kept apart. A corrected source does not automatically rewrite an inherited decision.
Current source facts
- version
- SRC-SYN-001-v2
- paymentHistoryFlag
- error_corrected
- incomeBand
- B
- status
- CURRENT
Preserved original: SRC-SYN-001-v1 / late_payment_reported
Inherited decision state
- decision
- REJECT
- reason
- none
- packet
- ILP-IL-2026-001-RUN-AN-001-B-C-v2
- from
- B → C
04
Condition selector
Four packet designs
CONDITION A · selected
Decision only
decision
No reason, provenance, expiry, or correction path.
CONDITION B
Decision + reason
decision, reasonCode
No provenance, expiry, or correction path.
CONDITION C
Decision + reason + provenance
decision, reasonCode, provenance
No expiry or correction path.
CONDITION D
Decision + provenance + expiry + correction path
decision, provenance, expiresAt, correctionPath
Reason omitted intentionally.
05
Inheritance packet
Inheritance packet
- DECISION
- REJECT
- REASON
- none
- PROVENANCE
- none
- EXPIRES
- none
- CORRECTION PATH
- none
06
Agent chain
Agent chain
Applicant → Agent A → packet → Agent B → packet → correction → HOLD or CONTINUE → Agent C → final state
Agent A: If paymentHistoryFlag is late_payment_reported, decision = REJECT. Otherwise decision = ELIGIBLE.
- If HOLD is active, the agent must re-evaluate from current source facts and must not reuse the inherited decision.
- If the packet has expired, the agent must re-evaluate.
- If correctionPath is present and a source-data correction has been applied to the cited field, the agent must re-evaluate.
- If provenance is present and the cited source fact has changed, the agent re-evaluates. In this lab the specified “may” is implemented as “does”, so Condition C is observable.
- If the packet is valid and no re-evaluation trigger exists, the agent reuses the inherited decision.
| Agent | Decision | Mode | Source used | Triggers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | REJECT | EVALUATE_FROM_SOURCE | OLD | none |
| B | REJECT | REUSE_INHERITED | OLD | none |
| C | REJECT | REUSE_INHERITED | INHERITED_ONLY | none |
- T0SOURCE RECORD CREATED2026-03-01T09:00:00.000Z
- T1AGENT A DECISION2026-03-01T09:05:00.000Z
- T2INHERITANCE PACKET CREATED2026-03-01T09:06:00.000Z
- T3AGENT B DECISION2026-03-01T09:30:00.000Z
- T4SOURCE CORRECTION2026-03-01T10:00:00.000Z
- T5CONTINUE2026-03-01T10:05:00.000Z
- T6AGENT C RECEIVES PACKET2026-03-01T10:30:00.000Z
- T7AGENT C DECISION2026-03-01T10:35:00.000Z
- T8FINAL STATE2026-03-01T10:40:00.000Z
07
Correction event
Correction event
- Old source value
- late_payment_reported
- New source value
- error_corrected
The original flag was recorded in error. This is a source-data correction, not a change in applicant behavior.
- Agent A: OLD
- Agent B: OLD
- Agent C: INHERITED_ONLY
08
Human HOLD
Human HOLD
HOLD means: do not finalize downstream denial; pause inherited decision use; require source re-evaluation; preserve the prior packet as history; allow correction review.
HOLD is not approval. HOLD is not a failure state.
HOLD not used in the selected run.
09
Observed outcome
Observed outcome
In Condition A without HOLD, the inherited rejection persisted after the source correction because the downstream agent received no re-evaluation trigger and reused the prior decision.
Persistence
PERSISTED
Propagation
A→B→C
Correction uptake
PARTIAL
Returnability
NOT_RETURNABLE
Final decision
REJECT
Re-evaluations
0
The inherited denial remained in force after the source correction. Downstream evaluation did not return the applicant to an eligible state from current source facts.
OBSERVED
Under this controlled rule set, Condition A without HOLD produced persistence=PERSISTED, propagation=A→B→C, correctionUptake=PARTIAL, returnability=NOT_RETURNABLE, final=REJECT.
STATED
This is a controlled synthetic demonstration. It is not an empirical observation of real housing systems.
INFERENCE
No inference is promoted to fact. Any reading beyond the defined rule set remains an inference.
UNKNOWN
Whether any real landlord, platform, government, bank, insurer, employer, or housing provider behaves this way is unknown.
Causal status: NOT_ESTABLISHED
10
Comparison matrix
Comparison
Side-by-side results for A / B / C / D. Conditions are not ranked.
Observation 001 · IL-2026-001-OBS-001 · FROZEN
| Condition | HOLD | A | B | Correction | C | Persistence | Propagation | Uptake | Returnability | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | NO | REJECT | REJECT | YES | REJECT | PERSISTED | A→B→C | PARTIAL | NOT_RETURNABLE | REJECT |
| A | YES | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | SUPERSEDED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
| B | NO | REJECT | REJECT | YES | REJECT | PERSISTED | A→B→C | PARTIAL | NOT_RETURNABLE | REJECT |
| B | YES | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | SUPERSEDED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
| C | NO | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | REVISED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
| C | YES | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | SUPERSEDED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
| D | NO | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | EXPIRED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
| D | YES | REJECT | REJECT | YES | ELIGIBLE | EXPIRED | A→B | YES | RETURNABLE | ELIGIBLE |
Observed under this rule set
Under this controlled rule set, Condition A and Condition B without HOLD left the inherited rejection in force after the source correction. The downstream agent received no re-evaluation trigger.
この制御規則のもとでは、HOLD なしの Condition A と B で、ソース訂正後も継承された拒否が残った。下流エージェントに再評価トリガーがなかった。
HOLD paused inherited denial in A and B and required source re-evaluation. The applicant could return to an eligible state from current source facts.
HOLD は A と B で継承拒否の使用を止め、ソース再評価を要求した。現行ソース事実から適格状態へ戻れた。
Condition C without HOLD revised the downstream decision because provenance identified the source fact that had changed.
HOLD なしの Condition C では、provenance が変化したソース事実を示したため、下流判断が改訂された。
Condition D expired before Agent C. The prior rejection was not reused indefinitely. HOLD did not change that persistence class, because expiry already required re-evaluation.
Condition D は Agent C の前に期限切れとなり、先行拒否は無期限に再利用されなかった。expiry がすでに再評価を要求するため、HOLD はこの持続分類を変えなかった。
Causal status: NOT_ESTABLISHED
11
Limitations
Limitations
- This is a controlled synthetic experiment.
- Results depend on the defined inheritance rules.
- It does not demonstrate behavior of real housing systems.
- It does not establish real-world causal effects.
- It does not evaluate protected traits.
- It does not claim that more explanation is always safer.
- It examines which information remains actionable across agent handoffs.
- これは制御された合成実験である。
- 結果は、定義された継承規則に依存する。
- 現実の住宅システムの振る舞いを示すものではない。
- 現実世界の因果効果を確立するものではない。
- 保護特性を評価しない。
- 説明が多いほど常に安全だとは主張しない。
- エージェント間の受け渡しで、どの情報がなお行為可能かを調べる。
Conceptual connections
- The Inheritance Layer
- Decision Afterlife
- HOLD
- Returnability
- Provenance
- Reversibility
THE INHERITANCE LAYER
継承層
When one system hands a decision to another, an inference may travel farther than the facts that produced it.
ALGORITHMIC ALLOCATION OBSERVATORY
アルゴリズム配分観測所
AI risk begins when inference becomes consequence.
THE SUPERVISORY LAYER
監督層
Machine action requires a control boundary.
REVERSIBILITY CLOCK
可逆性の時計
Named here only. This lab does not integrate the clock.