Research Programme
A substrate-independent framework and empirical programme for analysing retained adaptive modification, causal organisation and system-level coherence across different domains.
Developed by Tristan Radford and published through Riff Systems Ltd, the Adaptive Coherence Framework separates persistence, regulation, history dependence and retained change from the stronger claim that a system has modified response-generating organisation in a way that causally changes later behaviour. Its core definitions are intended to remain stable while measurement models and evidence change across domains.
The publications below are separate, permanent papers within the same programme. The foundational framework defines the architecture; empirical papers test whether its distinctions survive contact with real systems without rewriting the earlier publication.
Paper 01 · Foundational framework
Formal architecture, mathematical foundations, adversarial evaluation, and a substrate-independent model of adaptive organisation.
v1.1 · 17 August 2026 · Tristan Radford — Cross-Domain Cognitive Systems Architect
NEW · Paper 02 · Empirical stress test · Forest F1
A six-case empirical stress test of whether ACF can distinguish forest-level adaptive modification from resilience, ecological memory, retained damage, filtering and continuing forcing.
v1.0 · 4 October 2026 · Interim results · Tristan Radford — Cross-Domain Cognitive Systems Architect
Forest F1 applies the same frozen six-gate ACF classifier across heterogeneous forest systems. No completed case currently establishes forest-level adaptive modification; different cases stop at different evidential gates, and one preregistered case remains unexecuted because decisive raw data are not publicly accessible.