Commitment
2DemonstrationSemantic obligation embedded in a signal. The commitment function C(S) measures the strength of obligation in a natural language signal S.
Last updated: 2026-09-01Spec: CT Research Prospectus V.1
Definition
Semantic obligation embedded in a signal. The commitment function C(S) measures the strength of obligation in a natural language signal S.
Inputs
A natural language signal (utterance, instruction, contract clause, specification).
Derived variables
C(S) — the commitment value of the signal.
Claim
Natural language signals carry embedded commitment — “shall” is stronger than “may,” “must” is stronger than “should.” This commitment is measurable and degrades under transformation.
Test
Measure commitment in original signals and transformed versions. Compare commitment levels across signal types (contractual versus suggestive).
Observable
Commitment values before and after transformation. Degradation rates.
Falsifier
Commitment cannot be consistently measured, OR transformations do not degrade commitment.
Evidence
Conservation Law experiments (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19105225) measured commitment degradation across 7 controlled experiments with a 20-signal canonical corpus, 10 recursive iterations, and NLI bidirectional entailment.
Limitations
Commitment measurement depends on the measurement method (NLI, Jaccard, etc.). Different methods may produce different values.
Lineage
Commitment Theory research program, Conservation Law paper (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20029607). Architecture: mos2es.com/concepts/conservation-law.