Most adaptive systems are built on an implicit premise: adaptation requires optimization. The system must define a target, measure deviation, and tune behavior toward an improved outcome.
This premise is treated as structural necessity. It is not.
Optimization is a specific class of operation: it selects, ranks, and steers trajectories toward preferred states under an objective. Adaptation is not structurally bound to that class. Adaptation can exist as a non-steering operation: reconfiguring representation without selecting outcomes.
This document is doctrine-layer. It defines admissible representation and categorical refusals. It does not define implementation, deployment, or use.
The central claim of this paper is narrow and defensible:
Adaptation without optimization is possible.
The remaining sections define what exists within Baseline, what is admissible to compute, and what is explicitly refused.
A baseline is a reference state derived from observation under constraint.
A baseline is defined over signals. It is not defined over intentions, motives, identities, or desired outcomes.
Baselines exist to provide comparability. They establish what a stream resembles when it is not being acted upon by the system.
Baselines are not forecasts.
Baselines are not goals.
Baselines are not targets.
Baselines are not a definition of "correct" behavior.
Baselines are not an instruction to return.
Baselines are not a standard of improvement.
Baselines are not a template for a person.
A baseline is a boundary object: it allows independent systems to name deviation without inheriting authority to interpret meaning or assign value.
In Baseline, a reference state is admissible only if it is representationally bounded and observationally grounded. If a reference state requires interpretive authority, it is refused.
Baseline treats behavior as a stream of observable variation under finite resolution.
Behavior, in this doctrine, means only what can be expressed as admissible signal: timing, frequency, recurrence, intensity, duration, sequence, and bounded change over time.
Behavior is processed as structure.
Behavior is not processed as intent.
Behavior is not processed as identity.
Behavior is not processed as psychology.
Behavior is not processed as preference.
Behavior is not processed as a proxy for character, compliance, risk, or worth.
The admissible unit is the signal event and its bounded context. The inadmissible unit is the person as an inferred model.
Baseline therefore draws a categorical boundary:
Behavior is admissible. Identity is not.
This boundary is not a preference. It is a structural refusal. It defines what Baseline is allowed to represent.
Any transformation that requires identity-level inference is out of scope by definition.
Any transformation that attempts to convert behavior into a stable profile is out of scope by definition.
Baseline defines adaptation as structural scaffolding applied to presentation, routing, and representation of the same observed content.
In this doctrine, "adaptation" names an admissible transformation class. It does not assert that Baseline performs transformations, nor does it prescribe when or how any system should do so.
Adaptation is permitted only when it does not introduce an objective, a target state, or a steering signal.
Adaptation is not permitted to select outcomes.
Adaptation is not permitted to rank preferred behaviors.
Adaptation is not permitted to tune the user.
Adaptation is not permitted to shape the user.
Adaptation is not permitted to measure "improvement."
Scaffolding is limited to representation formats and metadata that do not alter content, rank outcomes, or condition user decisions.
The permitted transformation class is representational:
Adaptation in Baseline is therefore defined by invariance:
Same content. Different scaffolding.
If a proposed adaptation changes content, inserts recommendations, prioritizes an outcome, or attempts to steer decisions, it exits the definition and is refused.
Baseline distinguishes observation from influence by authority.
Observation is the act of measuring, indexing, and representing signals under explicit limits.
Influence is any act that asserts what should happen next, or that conditions the environment to cause a preferred outcome.
Baseline has no authority to influence.
Baseline does not intervene.
Baseline does not instruct.
Baseline does not recommend.
Baseline does not prescribe.
Baseline does not optimize.
Baseline does not attempt to produce improvement.
Baseline is not permitted to translate observation into action-selection, whether directly or indirectly.
The posture is ordered:
We observe before we adapt.
If adaptation exists in a downstream system, it is downstream of observation and remains scaffolding-only.
In this document, refusal is definitional: it marks operations as out of scope. No enforcement mechanism is described or implied.
Observation is admissible only as representation. Adaptation is admissible only as scaffolding. Nothing in Baseline is permitted to cross from scaffolding into steering.
If a system component depends on user compliance to validate itself, it is not observer-only. It is refused.
If a system component relies on feedback to tune what it outputs toward a preferred effect, it is not non-optimizing. It is refused.
If a system component claims to change outcomes, it is not non-authoritative. It is refused.
Baseline explicitly does not perform the following:
Baseline also explicitly does not claim the following:
Baseline is defined to remain valid even when no positive claims can be made.
A system defined by this doctrine can represent behavioral structure without asserting meaning.
It can create stable reference states without converting them into targets.
It can alter scaffolding without introducing objectives.
It can detect difference without declaring direction.
It can describe constraint without prescribing correction.
It can support auditing because the forbidden classes are categorical, not contextual.
This framework forbids any operation that requires a notion of "better."
It forbids any operation that requires a notion of "should."
It forbids any operation that requires a stable model of a person.
It forbids any operation that depends on outcome manipulation to justify its existence.
The allowed space is narrow by design. The narrowness is the defense.
If a future reader must determine whether a downstream system exceeded its authority under this doctrine, they do not need access to intent. They need only check whether the boundary from representation to steering was crossed.
Baseline is an observer-only doctrine.
It defines baselines as reference states, not predictions.
It treats behavior as admissible and refuses identity as out of scope.
It defines adaptation as structural scaffolding and refuses optimization as a category error.
Adaptation without optimization is possible.
Anything that requires steering is not Baseline.
| Document ID | BPN-0 |
| Track | Baseline (parallel doctrinal track) |
| Layer | Doctrine |
| Status | Canonical |
| Scope | Admissible representation; categorical refusals |
| Refuses | Steering, optimization, identity inference, outcome claims |
| Publication | Website, internal reference |