MCK Properties
Which properties can a declared observer represent, evaluate, and attribute to an agent or artifact?
MCK is the property layer of the research program. It develops an observer-relative vocabulary for meaning, residual opacity, function, and agent property attribution before those properties are evaluated over time.
Research programNext: LTL Evaluation
Research profile
Object of study
Artifacts and agents described relative to an observer, an evidence regime, and a declared set of structural and semantic predicates.
Core vocabulary
Meaning, residual opacity, function, region membership, restricted transitions, structural carriers, and semantic calibration.
Agent properties
Identity, integrity, and freedom are treated as candidate formal targets only when their carriers and evidence assumptions are explicit.
Methods
Observer-relative classification, finite region systems, transition mechanisms, two-layer agent state, and finite decision procedures.
Why this layer comes first
A temporal monitor can only evaluate predicates that have already been made precise enough to observe. MCK therefore precedes the temporal layer: it asks what the candidate property is, what carries it, which observer can recognize it, and what evidence supports the attribution.
The framework does not treat a property name as its own measurement. An agent may have a structurally realizable carrier while the semantic content assigned to that carrier remains uncalibrated. Keeping those layers separate prevents a formal-looking label from silently becoming an empirical result.
Public research sequence
- Classification. The foundation paper defines an observer-relative region system over meaning, residual opacity, and functionality.
- Transitions. The transition paper asks which changes between regions can be realized by restricted mechanisms and where those mechanisms stop.
- Self-attribution. The agent paper separates structural realizability from semantic calibration when an agent attributes identity, integrity, or freedom to itself.
Relationship to the wider program
LTL Evaluation takes declared properties and asks what finite or continuing trace evidence can justify about them. ChronoSpec then tests whether explicit temporal contracts can also shape model behavior, while LTL Triangles studies their use in post-failure governance.
Current status and claim boundary
MCK Properties is a public preprint cluster. The page does not claim peer-review acceptance, universal definitions of agent properties, or that the proposed signatures are already validated as mechanistic measures.
Selected publications
Preprint, 2026 / MCK Properties
When Can an Agent Attribute Properties to Itself? A Cognitive Algebra for Identity, Integrity, and Freedom
Zenodo preprint, version 3
Develops the MCK self-attribution layer with a two-layer state separating structural carriers from semantic content, then studies continuity, viability, and owned branching as property signatures.
ABS
This preprint distinguishes structural realizability from semantic calibration in agent self-attribution. It uses the MCK observer-relative framework to model capability carriers, evidence content, self-reference, other-models, operator composition, and finite decision procedures for continuity, viability, and owned branching.
CITE
@misc{bragetti2026agentattributeproperties,
title = {When Can an Agent Attribute Properties to Itself? A Cognitive Algebra for Identity, Integrity, and Freedom},
author = {Bragetti, Davide and Micali, Silvio and Italiano, Giuseppe Francesco},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23041633},
publisher = {Zenodo},
note = {Preprint}
}
Preprint, 2026 / MCK Properties
MCK Region Transitions: Restricted Realization Mechanisms and Their Limits
Zenodo preprint
Studies restricted mechanisms for moving artifacts across MCK regions, including assimilation, operator admission, denotation, and reconstruction certificates.
ABS
This preprint starts from the MCK region system and asks which restricted realization families can actually move artifacts between observer-relative regions. It separates algebraic transition possibility from concrete procedures and records where each mechanism stops.
CITE
@misc{bragetti2026mckregiontransitions,
title = {MCK Region Transitions: Restricted Realization Mechanisms and Their Limits},
author = {Bragetti, Davide and Palumbo, Edoardo and Asaro, Carmelo and Italiano, Giuseppe Francesco},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23041603},
publisher = {Zenodo},
note = {Preprint}
}
Preprint, 2026 / MCK Properties
Meaning, Opacity, and Function: An Observer-Relative Classification of Artifacts
Zenodo preprint
Defines the observer-relative MCK region system over meaning, residual opacity, and functionality, fixing the vocabulary used by later MCK work.
ABS
This preprint treats meaning, opacity, and functionality as observer-relative predicates over artifacts. It studies the finite region system induced by those predicates and supplies the baseline vocabulary later used for property attribution.
CITE
@misc{bragetti2026meaningopacityfunction,
title = {Meaning, Opacity, and Function: An Observer-Relative Classification of Artifacts},
author = {Bragetti, Davide and Asaro, Carmelo and Italiano, Giuseppe Francesco},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22016203},
publisher = {Zenodo},
note = {Preprint}
}