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Stances and postures

A stance records an agent’s relationship to a target.

stance [alias:] <agent> <posture> <target>      # canonical core form
<agent> <posture> <target>                       # readable action form

Both produce a Stance object with agent, posture, target, an optional confidence (+ basis), and any other fields. The action form additionally creates foci and links, depending on the posture.

The twelve postures

PostureCreates a focus?Inferred kindNotes
noticedyesobservationregistered an observation
considersyesoptionput an option forward
holdsyesdecisioncommits to / believes
choosesyesdecisionselects an option
remembersyesmemorycarries a fact forward
infersyesclaimconcludes from sources (special form)
suspects——proposes a link (special form)
asksno—raises a question
doubtsno—low credence
acceptsno—agrees
rejectsno—rules out
revisesno—supersedes a prior stance

An unknown posture warns (unknown posture) unless a profile declares it.

The three forms

Single — <agent> <posture> <target>

The common case. Creates a stance on target; for a focus-creating posture, also creates the focus (with the inferred kind and the block body).

team considers postgres-option
  A single Postgres instance with a partitioned events table.

→ a focus postgres-option (kind option) + a stance team considers postgres-option.

suspects — <agent> suspects <from> <relation> <to> [as <alias>]

Proposes a relationship and takes a stance on it. Creates both endpoint foci, a link (aliased if you give as <alias>), and a stance whose target is the link — so the suspicion is about the inference itself.

analyst suspects ai-automation causes job-displacement as displacement-hypothesis
  confidence 0.45..0.70

infers — <agent> infers <target> from <id-list>

Draws a conclusion. Creates target (kind claim) and one supports link from each source; a weight field applies to all of them.

analyst infers adaptation-too-slow from ai-capability-surge, reskilling-lag
  confidence 0.60

Fields on a stance

  • confidence — a number, a range (lo..hi), or ?. Out-of-form values error.
  • until <ref> [status] — desugars to a <ref> blocks <target> link (see Questions).
  • note — free-text rationale; always attaches to the stance, for every posture.
  • any other field — attaches to the stance.

Body routing

  • A focus-creating posture: the indented prose becomes the focus’s body.
  • A non-creating posture: the prose becomes a note on the stance.

So team chooses postgres-option\n Start with Postgres. puts the sentence on the focus, while economist doubts displacement-hypothesis\n Betting on precedent. puts it on the stance as a note.

Disagreement and contradiction

Multiple agents taking different postures on one target is normal — that’s a recorded disagreement. But a single agent taking mutually incompatible postures on the same target is flagged. The incompatible pairs are: accepts/rejects, accepts/doubts, chooses/rejects, holds/rejects. See Diagnostics.