The Diagnosis

Human Salt · The Third Layer of the Just Add Salt Architecture

The Secret of Mnem… is Salt. Substrate Salt + Federation Salt + Human Salt = Right Answer.

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⚕️ Regulatory Disclaimer

The Diagnosis is an informational peer network only. Responses come from cooperative peers, not licensed professionals, unless a responder explicitly discloses a relevant credential. Nothing in The Diagnosis constitutes medical advice, legal advice, financial advice, or professional advice of any kind. Always consult a licensed professional for decisions affecting your health, legal rights, or financial wellbeing. MnemosyneC does not certify the qualifications of any responder.


What Is The Diagnosis?

The Diagnosis is the Human Salt layer of MnemosyneC — the third tier of the Just Add Salt architecture.

When Substrate Salt (your local verified eblets) and Federation Salt (Constellation peers) cannot resolve a question to 3-voter concordance, The Diagnosis opens the question to human cooperative peers — real people who have experienced or solved the same problem.

Think of it as the cooperative-class implementation of the NYT “Diagnosis” column model: a complex, ambiguous question gets surfaced to a community of peers who collectively know the answer — and the best answer rises through votes, concordance, and community endorsement.


The Three Salt Layers

LayerNameSourceWhen Activated
🧂 Layer 1Substrate SaltYour local verified ebletsEvery query — HOT retrieval first
🌌 Layer 2Federation SaltConstellation peers (other machines)When local substrate has no hit
🩺 Layer 3Human SaltThe Diagnosis — cooperative peer networkWhen federation cannot reach concordance

The right answer lives somewhere in the constellation. The Diagnosis is the final escalation — the human cooperative that catches what machines miss.


Persistence Tiers: Pinch · Seasoning · Preserved-in-Salt

Every answer in MnemosyneC exists at one of three persistence tiers:

🧂 Pinch — Candidate Signal

🌿 Seasoning — Verified, In Use

🫙 Preserved-in-Salt — Stone Tablet

The substrate gets cleaner over time, not noisier. Failed claims die. Verified+used claims persist. Used-and-verified claims become permanent.


The Glow Mechanic — Bounty Surfacing

When a question enters The Diagnosis, it can accumulate Glow — a cooperative bounty signal that draws the attention of knowledgeable peers.

Glow LevelMarksVisualEffect
No Glow0⬜ DimVisible to local community
Warm Glow1–50🟡 AmberBoosted in federation feed
Bright Glow51–1000🔴 Red-GoldSurfaced to expert network tier

Glow is funded via Substitution Rails — the cooperative payment layer that uses Fiat · Marks · Barter (never direct fiat conversion). A member can add Marks to a question’s Glow to draw more cooperative attention to difficult or time-sensitive Diagnoses.

Glow is not payment for an answer — it is signal of urgency for the cooperative network. Responders are not compensated per-answer; they earn through the cooperative work-and-pay layer (83.3% to workers).


The Diagnosis in Action — Domain-Universal Examples

🏥 Medical Mystery

“My father has been experiencing fatigue, joint pain, and a recurring rash for 6 months. Three doctors have given three different diagnoses. What are we missing?”

🔧 Mechanical Fix

“My 2009 F-150 5.4L has a ticking noise from cylinder 3 that doesn’t go away after warmup. Already replaced the cam phasers.”

🌿 Practical How-To

“I want to start a backyard orchard in Zone 6b with heavy clay soil. What rootstocks and varieties have actually survived?”

📍 Local Find

“Best independent auto mechanic in the Portland, ME area who won’t upsell?”


How to Post a Diagnosis

(Available in MnemosyneC v0.4.x — The Diagnosis in-app surface)

  1. Start a Plow on your question
  2. If the pipeline reaches Federated Andon Cord Tier 2 (Federation cannot resolve), you receive an option: “Submit to The Diagnosis”
  3. Set a Glow budget (0 = no boost, up to 1000 Marks for maximum surfacing)
  4. Your question joins the cooperative peer network
  5. Answers are voted up by peers (Reddit-style top-voted model)
  6. 3-voter concordance at the human response layer promotes answers to Seasoning tier
  7. The best answer(s) are written back to your substrate as human-verified eblets

Bounty Pricing — Substitution Rails

TierCostWhat You Get
Basic DiagnosisFreePosts to local community feed
Warm Glow1–50 MarksBoosted in regional federation feed
Bright Glow51–1000 MarksSurfaced to expert network tier + priority queue

Marks are earned through cooperative participation — answering Diagnoses, growing your substrate, federation contributions. You earn Marks by helping; you spend Marks by asking for help. Help each other help ourselves.

Fiat · Marks · Barter — Substitution Rails. Never fiat-conversion. The cooperative economy is closed-loop.


The Diagnosis & The Federated Andon Cord

The Diagnosis is Tier 3 of the Federated Andon Cord escalation:

TierTriggerAction
Tier 1Local 3-voter concordance failsRetry locally (up to 3 attempts)
Tier 2Local retries exhaustedEscalate to Constellation peers (Federation)
Tier 3Federation cannot resolveEscalate to The Diagnosis (Human Salt)

The Andon Cord never silently fails. It escalates through the salt layers until a cooperative answer is found — or it honestly reports “no resolution available at this time” and quarantines rather than writing a wrong answer.


The Diagnosis · MnemosyneC · Liana Banyan Corporation · Capitalist Cooperative

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