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Selective Propagation

Origin domain
Physical Sciences
Subdomain
transport and filtering → Physical Sciences
Related primes
Propagation

Core Idea

Selective propagation occurs when a heterogeneous population moves through a carrier or medium while a component property controls continued passage, attenuation, or dropout. The population observed farther along the path is compositionally shifted even when surviving members travel at the same speed. A mixed input population, a propagation path, property-dependent retention or attenuation, progressive travel, and a changed output composition are required. The mechanism selects during passage rather than sorting once at entry.

Broad Use

Optical modes, seismic waves, pathogens, chemical species, messages in networks, and traits in transmission chains preserve the mixed-input–path–property-dependent-survival structure.

Clarity

Differential transport changes component velocities. Filtration usually invokes a localized barrier. Selective propagation can operate continuously through attenuation or survival. Selection is the broader retention relation; propagation adds ordered distance and cumulative exposure.

Manages Complexity

The abstraction turns scattered cases into one role-based test: identify the required elements, test their relation, and reject the classification when a constitutive commitment is missing.

Abstract Reasoning

Use the structural signature rather than the label, then challenge the nearest counterexample. Two components arriving at different times solely because they move at different speeds exhibit differential transport, not selective propagation, if neither is preferentially lost.

Knowledge Transfer

Optical modes, seismic waves, pathogens, chemical species, messages in networks, and traits in transmission chains preserve the mixed-input–path–property-dependent-survival structure.

Example

A case qualifies only when the definition and every load-bearing role remain present. Two components arriving at different times solely because they move at different speeds exhibit differential transport, not selective propagation, if neither is preferentially lost.

Relationships to Other Abstractions

Local relationship map for Selective PropagationParents appear above the current abstraction, mutual partners to the right, and children below. Node labels state whether each abstraction is prime or domain-specific; colors identify relation types.Selective PropagationPRIMEPrime abstraction: Propagation — is a kind ofPropagationPRIMEDomain-specific abstraction: Sediment Transport — is a kind ofSedimentTransportDOMAIN

Current abstraction Selective Propagation Prime

Parents (1) — more general patterns this builds on

  • Selective Propagation is a kind of Propagation Prime

    Selective propagation is a propagation subtype that adds attribute-dependent survival and downstream composition shift to ordinary source-through-medium spread.

Children (1) — more specific cases that build on this

  • Sediment Transport Domain-specific is a kind of Selective Propagation

    Sediment transport is the granular-fluid specialization in which size, density, and settling response control continued mobility and therefore sort the transported population coarse-to-fine along the energy gradient.

Hierarchy path (1) — routes to 1 parentless root

Not to Be Confused With

Differential transport changes component velocities. Filtration usually invokes a localized barrier. Selective propagation can operate continuously through attenuation or survival. Selection is the broader retention relation; propagation adds ordered distance and cumulative exposure.

Notes

(Canonical first draft; queued for Claude house-style re-authoring and citation review.)