Metadata

Title:	Journey: Human-Led Convergence in the Articulation of Cognitive Memoisation
Author: Ralph B. Holland
Publication date	2026-01-04T00:00Z
Affiliation	Arising Technology Systems Pty Ltd
Contact	ralph.b.holland [at] gmail.com
Provenance	Authored MediaWiki artefact; edit history reflects editorial changes only
Scope	Abstract through end of Section 7 (inclusive)
Binding	Normative (verbatim)
Notes	This artefact is descriptive (methods paper) and does not supersede CM-master specifications. This artefact documents a convergence journey and the bootstrapping mechanism used to strengthen CM.

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As curator and author, I apply the Apache License, Version 2.0, at publication to permit reuse and implementation while preventing enclosure or patent capture. This licensing action does not revise, reinterpret, or supersede any normative content herein.
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Journey: Human-Led Convergence in the Articulation of Cognitive Memoisation

Abstract

This paper documents the journey by which Cognitive Memoisation (CM) was articulated, strengthened, and governed through extended interaction between a human practitioner and a Large Language Model (LLM). Rather than presenting CM as an invention or a finished framework, the paper describes a process of reflexive bootstrapping in which an already-existing human practice was progressively rendered explicit, constrained, and stabilised. The LLM functioned not as an epistemic authority, but as a low-impedance cognitive surface capable of carrying ambiguity, reflecting structure, and probing boundaries. The paper shows how terminology, invariants, and governance emerged through use, correction, and externalisation, and how epistemic authority remained explicitly human throughout. The result is a case study in disciplined human–machine collaboration that enables progress without memory while avoiding semantic drift and authority transfer.

1. Introduction

Extended intellectual work with stateless Large Language Models presents a persistent failure mode: previously established concepts, constraints, and decisions must be rediscovered repeatedly. This phenomenon, commonly experienced as the “Groundhog Day” effect, is not primarily a limitation of reasoning capability but of continuity.

Cognitive Memoisation (CM) addresses this condition by externalising knowledge into authoritative artefacts and re-activating it through constraint rather than recall. However, CM did not originate as a formal specification. It existed prior to its written form as a disciplined human practice. The challenge addressed in this paper is therefore not how CM was invented, but how it was articulated, strengthened, and governed.

This paper documents that journey. Its focus is not on CM as a normative framework, but on the process by which tacit practice was transformed into explicit terminology, invariants, and governance constructs through sustained, human-led interaction with an LLM.

2. Tacit Practice Before Formalisation

Before formal articulation, the practitioner already engaged in behaviours that would later be recognised as Cognitive Memoisation:

externalising knowledge into durable artefacts such as MediaWiki pages
treating written artefacts as authoritative rather than conversational continuity
reconstructing work after session loss rather than relying on recall
resisting narrative accumulation in favour of explicit structure

At this stage, the practice lacked a stable name, explicit invariants, formal governance, and a vocabulary capable of carrying epistemic authority. The problem was not that the practice was ineffective, but that it was implicit—difficult to inspect, audit, or communicate.

The task, therefore, was one of articulation rather than invention: making an existing way of working explicit, governable, and portable.

3. The LLM as a Low-Impedance Cognitive Surface

During articulation, the LLM was deliberately used not as an authority or source of truth, but as a low-impedance cognitive surface. Unlike static documents or formal modelling tools, the LLM could accept incomplete, ambiguous, and provisional material without forcing premature precision.

In practice, the LLM provided:

a surface capable of holding multiple competing framings simultaneously
persistence of semantic labels while their meanings remained unsettled
rapid reflection of proposed structures back to the human for inspection
tolerance for ambiguity later formalised as Dangling Cognates

This low impedance was essential. It allowed ideas to remain fluid until their boundaries became visible. Concepts could be introduced provisionally, revised repeatedly, or abandoned entirely without collapsing the surrounding structure.

Crucially, the LLM was never treated as epistemically authoritative. Its role was instrumental and reflective: to carry structure long enough for the human to examine and govern it.

4. Iterative Articulation and Boundary Discovery

As articulation progressed, the human practitioner introduced candidate concepts, terms, and relationships. The LLM re-expressed these, inferred relationships, and proposed coherence. These inferences were then explicitly accepted, corrected, or rejected by the human.

Moments of overreach—where the LLM smoothed rough edges prematurely, inferred coherence not yet justified, or implied narrative continuity—were not treated as errors. Instead, they functioned as boundary probes. Each correction revealed an implicit constraint that had not yet been named.

Over time, these corrections accumulated into explicit invariants. What initially appeared as local disagreement (“not that”) was progressively stabilised into global rules (“this must never happen”). Boundary discovery, rather than abstract design, drove the emergence of governance.

5. Emergence of Explicit Governance

As conceptual complexity increased, risks became apparent. Uncontrolled inference, narrative continuity, and semantic drift threatened to undermine meaning preservation. In response, explicit governance constructs were introduced, including:

invariant declarations
MUST and MUST NOT constraints
explicit supersession rules
later, formal constructs such as Epistemic Objects and Epistemic Attachments

At this point, the role of the LLM shifted. It no longer functioned primarily as a generator of ideas, but as a reflective processor operating under declared constraints. The LLM could hold and relate structures, but authority over meaning, status, and persistence remained entirely human.

Governance did not suppress reasoning; it disciplined it.

6. Carrying Complexity Without Collapse

A key contribution of the LLM in this process was its ability to carry a large number of interrelated concepts simultaneously. Facts, concepts, inferences, constraints, and governance constructs could coexist without collapsing into narrative or losing internal consistency.

This capacity allowed Cognitive Memoisation to grow in complexity while remaining coherent. The LLM effectively acted as a temporary carrier of epistemic structure, preserving relationships while meaning was stabilised elsewhere.

Importantly, this carrying was reflexive, not authoritative. The LLM maintained structure; the human determined meaning. Durable knowledge was externalised into artefacts; the model remained a transient surface.

7. Convergence Under Human Authority

Cognitive Memoisation pre-existed its written form. What occurred through this interaction was a bootstrapping process: an already-established human practice was flexively developed, strengthened, and rendered explicit through use. CM was progressively articulated, governed, and stabilised by being exercised against a Large Language Model, translating tacit human cognition into explicit CM model governance without transferring epistemic authority to the machine.

This bootstrapping was not merely documentary. It was instrumental to discovery. Through sustained, reflexive interaction, the practitioner learned the operative terminology of LLM systems, identified their characteristic failure modes, and—most critically—recognised the LLM as an extremely low-impedance interface to an existing cognitive style. The LLM’s capacity to accept provisional structure, tolerate ambiguity, and reflect complex relationships without forcing premature closure made it uniquely compatible with the way the practitioner thinks and works. The framework was therefore strengthened not by abstract design, but by being used reflexively, stressed, corrected, and governed in real time.

Convergence occurred not because the LLM learned Cognitive Memoisation, but because the human repeatedly asserted epistemic authority: extracting invariants, enforcing boundaries, and externalising stabilised knowledge into authoritative artefacts. The LLM accelerated articulation and reduced cognitive load, but all durable outcomes resulted from explicit human judgement and memoisation. Nothing persisted without consent; nothing acted without instruction.

8. References

The following references are part of the Cognitive Memoisation corpus and are cited here by title. All referenced artefacts are published under the Cognitive Memoisation category and are considered normative or methodological unless otherwise stated.

These references provide foundational definitions, methodological context, and related case studies that align with the journey described in this paper.