First-edition scope and remaining research
Frozen in version 1.0.0
The edition supplies a self-contained theoretical account of finite reusable state, exact and approximate operation transport, deterministic state-changing information acquisition, deterministic and Bayesian correction, designable and fixed recipient explanations, and exact bounded explicit-tree resource feasibility. One instrument connects these objects. Its hypotheses, negative examples, costs and actual recipient procedures are visible.
The original first-edition consolidation goals are addressed: a four-part reading structure, a statement/dependency guide, a charged interpreter and background boundary, fixed recipient programs, a costed integrated example, a targeted reference audit, an executable witness interface, complete finite reruns, layout inspection, and a clean rebuild. This is an editorial and theoretical scope freeze, not an assertion that all mathematical questions have been settled.
Deliberately not inferred
A useful formal representation need not be causally used by an external solver. A short artifact can rely on substantial installed knowledge. A compiled tree is not an arbitrary minimal program. An exact finite decision method need not be computationally cheap. An observation model is not automatically learned or calibrated. Posterior concentration is not the same as exact state recovery. Neither representation persistence nor success in these constructions establishes subjective experience.
Research beyond this edition
The following require new claims and witnesses, not a version-number change: efficient synthesis for large catalogues; bounded approximate or noisy joint acquisition and communication; learned and changing likelihoods; interactive recipients with evolving backgrounds; practical decoder and program-description optimization; distributional rather than worst-case cost; and causal attribution to actual learned systems. Those directions remain open without preventing this finite first edition from being complete in its declared scope.