{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"objective_weighting_governance__chemistry_materials","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"objective_weighting_governance__chemistry_materials__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"objective_weighting_governance__chemistry_materials","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"objective_weighting_governance__chemistry_materials__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Threshold-Gated Mechanical Comparator for Fire-Safe Cable-Jacket Formulations","problem":"A materials laboratory must choose among polymer cable-jacket formulations that trade off flame and smoke behavior, retained tensile strength, flexibility, and extrusion resistance. Collapsing those unlike properties into a fixed composite score can conceal the relative importance assigned to each property and can let favorable mechanical or processing performance compensate for an unacceptable fire-safety result.","actors":["Polymer formulation chemists","Materials-test technicians","Cable qualification lead","Candidate polymer formulations and replicate test coupons","Passive mechanical and optomechanical test modules"],"observable_state":"For each formulation, standardized coupon tests produce calibrated physical displacements or forces for flame response, smoke attenuation, retained tensile strength, bend resistance, and extrusion resistance. Labeled lever-arm positions expose the contribution assigned to each compensatory property; flame and smoke limit trips show whether protected thresholds are satisfied; a balance pointer shows the pairwise result; and moving a carriage through a marked interval reveals any reversal of that result.","consequence":"Without an inspectable weighting structure and noncompensable safety gates, a formulation can appear preferred because an implicit scaling or weight dominates the composite result, even though the choice is fragile to plausible weight changes or violates a fire-safety floor.","affected_objective":"Select a workable cable-jacket formulation while keeping flame and smoke limits noncompensable and making tradeoffs among durability, flexibility, and processability physically inspectable and sensitivity-testable.","intervention":"Build a no-software benchtop comparator for pairwise formulation tests. Replicate coupons are evaluated by attached passive modules: a mechanical proving ring for retained tensile strength, a bend-force spring for flexibility, a ram-force module for extrusion resistance, and optomechanical indicators for flame and smoke tests. Calibrated cams convert each module's response to a common force range. Those forces act on a balance through labeled, lockable lever arms whose distances are the explicit objective weights. Independent flame and smoke trips mechanically release a blocking latch whenever either protected limit is crossed, so favorable results elsewhere cannot compensate. Sliding each permitted lever arm across an engraved interval performs a physical sensitivity sweep and exposes pointer reversals. Removable keyed scale plates permit bounded revision of weights and scales without altering the safety trips.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Objective Set","domain_realization":"Flame response and smoke attenuation are protected objectives; retained tensile strength, flexibility, and extrusion resistance are compensatory objectives."},{"archetype_element":"Objective Weight","domain_realization":"The distance between each property-force linkage and the balance pivot physically sets that property's contribution to total torque."},{"archetype_element":"Weight-Setting Process","domain_realization":"Lockable carriages are placed at labeled lever-arm positions, making every proposed weight a visible physical setting rather than a hidden coefficient."},{"archetype_element":"Stakeholder Review","domain_realization":"Chemists, technicians, and the qualification lead can inspect the same labeled arms, gates, and pointer and can test alternative permitted positions directly on the apparatus."},{"archetype_element":"Legitimacy Rule","domain_realization":"Keyed carriage stops bound the permissible weight intervals, while independent flame and smoke trips define tradeoffs that the weighted balance is physically unable to make."},{"archetype_element":"Weight Sensitivity Analysis","domain_realization":"A carriage is swept through its marked interval while the other settings remain fixed; any balance reversal is directly observable."},{"archetype_element":"Revision Procedure","domain_realization":"A removable calibrated scale plate and keyed carriage stops can be replaced after revalidation, while the independent safety-trip assembly remains unchanged."},{"archetype_element":"Proxy Alignment Check","domain_realization":"Each force channel is calibrated against the corresponding direct coupon test rather than against an overall desirability label."},{"archetype_element":"Decision Impact Trace","domain_realization":"The contribution of each property is visible as force multiplied by labeled lever distance, and a change that reverses the pairwise preference is observable at the pointer."},{"archetype_element":"Protected Threshold","domain_realization":"Separate flame and smoke trips release a mechanical blocking latch before weighted torques can authorize a preference."},{"archetype_element":"Audit Trail","domain_realization":"Carriage positions can leave impressions on a replaceable witness strip; this records settings but is not needed for the balance or threshold gates to operate."},{"archetype_element":"Score Interpretation Rule","domain_realization":"The pointer indicates only a pairwise preference between formulations that have both cleared the mechanical safety gates; it does not itself qualify a formulation for production."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"weighted_sum_objective","role":"Property-response forces multiplied by lever-arm distances sum as physical torques about the pivot.","counterfactual_removal":"Without torque summation, the apparatus would display separate properties but could not produce an integrated pairwise comparison."},{"mechanism_slug":"weighted_scoring_model","role":"Calibrated passive cams normalize unlike physical measurements and the balance integrates their explicitly weighted contributions without computation.","counterfactual_removal":"Without the calibrated force conversions and balance, unlike measurements would not enter a common physical comparison."},{"mechanism_slug":"weight_sensitivity_sweep","role":"Sliding a lockable carriage through its permitted interval tests whether the preferred formulation changes under alternative weights.","counterfactual_removal":"The apparatus could compare formulations at one setting, but it could not expose weight-fragile reversals."},{"mechanism_slug":"scorecard_disclosure_template","role":"Engraved property labels, scale ranges, units, and lever positions make the physical weighting rule inspectable.","counterfactual_removal":"The balance and gates would still operate, but observers could not reliably interpret which tradeoffs the apparatus embodies."}],"causal_chain":["Coupon exposure or loading produces a property-specific physical response in each test module.","A calibrated passive transducer or cam converts each response into a force on a declared common range.","Each compensatory force acts at its visibly set lever distance, converting the declared weight into mechanical torque.","Flame or smoke responses beyond their protected limits release an independent latch that blocks the formulation regardless of summed torque.","If both formulations clear the gates, opposing torques move the pointer toward the formulation favored by the explicit weight settings.","Sweeping a lever carriage through its permitted interval physically reveals whether plausible weight changes reverse the pointer.","The qualification lead receives a bounded comparison whose tradeoffs, safety exclusions, and fragility can be inspected directly on the apparatus."],"baseline":"Compare the apparatus with a fixed composite-score calculation using the same property measurements and with the existing alternative of applying fire-safety pass/fail tests followed by an unweighted review of the remaining properties. The first integrates objectives but can hide coefficients or scaling; the second protects safety floors but does not expose a reproducible tradeoff or its sensitivity.","nearest_rivals":["A spreadsheet or electronic multi-criteria model using the same measurements; it is more easily reconfigured but relies on software and can conceal formulas, scaling, or post-hoc weight changes.","Independent pass/fail qualification tests followed by expert judgment; it preserves hard minima but leaves compensatory tradeoffs and their sensitivity implicit.","A Pareto plot of all measured properties; it avoids forced compensation but does not itself resolve a pairwise choice among non-dominated formulations.","A statistically designed formulation campaign that maps composition-property response surfaces; it can investigate the underlying chemistry but answers a broader and more resource-intensive question than whether a particular weighted choice is transparent and robust."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"Relative to a fixed composite-score calculation, the proposed comparator should physically expose the applied property weights, reveal pairwise rank reversals during bounded weight sweeps, and prevent flame or smoke threshold failures from being offset by favorable mechanical or processing properties. This is a testable functional contrast, not a claim of novelty or effect size.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The cable qualification lead may decide whether evidence from the prototype warrants further validation; only the responsible safety authority may define or change flame and smoke limits or approve production use.","authorized_first_step":"Construct and calibrate one non-production comparator using reference springs or archived, already-obtained test responses; evaluate only its torque arithmetic, weight-sweep behavior, and threshold-latch function.","excluded_actions":["Changing mandated flame or smoke thresholds","Qualifying or releasing a formulation for production","Conducting new live-flame or smoke tests outside an authorized fire-test facility","Treating the pointer result as a substitute for required chemical, electrical, environmental, or regulatory qualification","Adding automatic actuation or a software decision loop"],"halt_rollback":"Stop if any safety trip fails to block a deliberately over-limit reference, if pointer ordering departs from preregistered torque calculations beyond the calibration tolerance, or if a carriage can move outside its keyed range. Remove the prototype from decision use, restore the ordinary qualification process, and retain the apparatus only for diagnosis or recalibration."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The strongest counterevidence would be that direct property scales and hard safety thresholds already determine every relevant choice, so no compensatory weighted decision exists, or that plausible weight changes never alter any candidate ordering.","problem_falsifier":"The problem is falsified for the selected decision if flame and smoke are already enforced as independent hard constraints, the remaining choice has only one objective, and interviews plus reconstructed decisions show no material dependence on implicit property weights or scales.","intervention_falsifier":"The intervention is falsified if the mechanical ordering fails to match preregistered hand torque calculations within a stated calibration tolerance, if an over-limit reference can still produce an eligible pointer result, or if the physical sweep fails to reveal a reversal known to occur within the tested weight interval.","risks":["Cam normalization can embed hidden value judgments in the measurement scales even when lever weights are visible.","Spring fatigue, friction, temperature, optical fouling, or pivot wear can bias the physical comparison.","Users may mistake a pairwise pointer result for complete material qualification.","Incorrectly keyed safety limits could mechanically enforce the wrong threshold.","The weighted-sum geometry can misrepresent nonlinear property interactions or formulations that are incomparable on a common scale.","Visible controls can invite post-hoc adjustment unless settings are fixed before candidate identities are revealed.","The apparatus may become too complex to calibrate reliably across destructive tests requiring replicate coupons."]},"next_evidence_step":"Using archived measurements or calibrated reference springs for three anonymized formulations, preregister five lever-position sets including one known reversal case and two deliberately over-limit flame or smoke cases. Compare pointer direction with hand-computed torque signs, verify that every over-limit case releases the blocking latch, repeat each configuration after random reloading, and stop after this bench series without making a formulation decision.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"No other proposals or experiment cells were inspected under runtime isolation. This candidate is internally distinguished by using passive torque summation, direct physical threshold interlocks, and mechanically swept weights in a materials-qualification instrument.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Construct one causally defensible candidate under the binding substrate constraint","Preserve explicit weighting, protected thresholds, sensitivity testing, impact visibility, and revision structure","Keep computation and governance as nonessential support wrappers","Specify bounded authority, falsifiers, rivals, and a first evidence step"],"conceptual_changes":["Translated objective weights into lever-arm distances and weighted sums into torque balance","Translated noncompensable objectives into independent mechanical blocking trips","Separated the instrument's physical comparison effect from any later qualification authority"],"operational_changes":["Limited the first step to a non-production bench comparator using archived responses or reference springs","Added keyed ranges, calibration checks, explicit halt conditions, and rollback to ordinary qualification"],"evidence_changes":["Defined preregistered torque-sign comparisons, a known reversal case, repeated loading, and deliberate over-limit gate tests"],"claim_changes":["Restricted the claim to inspectability, physical threshold exclusion, and detection of weight-sensitive reversals","Made no claim about novelty, prevalence, demand, or effect size"]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"MEASUREMENT_INSTRUMENTATION","counterfactual_independence":"The essential effect is produced by passive measurement transduction, lever-arm torque summation, pointer motion, and mechanically released safety latches. If all software, algorithmic inference, databases, dashboards, reports, incentives, authorization workflows, reviews, and procedural enforcement are removed, loaded test responses still generate forces, the declared lever positions still weight those forces, the balance still moves, a threshold violation still blocks eligibility, and moving a carriage still exposes a reversal. Human authority remains necessary only to decide whether to use the result beyond the bounded experiment.","forbidden_channel_audit":"The proposal contains no software control loop, algorithm, recommender, database, or downstream analytics. Witness strips, labels, calibration records, and human review improve traceability but do not create the comparison or threshold effect. Authorization does not actuate the gates, and procedural compliance is not relied upon to prevent compensation: the independent latch does so physically. Removing all reporting leaves the balance and interlocks functional; removing all incentives and governance wrappers leaves the same physical response for the same coupons and carriage settings."}}}