# Continuity Provenance **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Domain:** Evidence / Continuity / Identity Governance **Doc Type:** Canonical Evidence Node **Maturity:** Evolving ## Definition **Continuity provenance is the documented origin, custody, transformation, authorization and execution history of materials used to preserve, reconstruct or continue an identity-bearing subject.** It specializes [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]] for transitions where evidentiary gaps can change who or what is instantiated. ## Evidence Layers Continuity provenance should distinguish source records, inferred state, authored correction, model generation, executable packaging, activation, runtime change, migration, restoration and branching. It should record uncertainty and missing intervals rather than laundering reconstruction into observation. The canonical evidentiary order remains: **record → model → executable process → running continuant → legally recognized subject**. Movement along this chain is not automatic. A record can support a model; a model can support an executable process; a process can run; a running process can present evidence of agency or experience; law can then recognize standing. Provenance preserves the chain but does not collapse its stages. ## Governance Function Continuity provenance enables audit, correction, restoration comparison, successor claims, authorization review and [[wiki/Restoration Disclosure|disclosure of omitted intervals]]. It should remain portable with the subject under [[wiki/Orderly Transfer|Orderly Transfer]] and protected from unilateral rewriting by any custodian. ## Key Insight **Provenance can demonstrate where a subject came from without proving that the subject is numerically identical to its source.** ## See Also [[wiki/Digital Thread|Digital Thread]], [[wiki/State Lineage|State Lineage]], [[wiki/Proof of Descent|Proof of Descent]], [[wiki/Continuity Evidence vs Continuity|Continuity Evidence vs Continuity]] ## Relationships <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> This entry is routed through [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]], and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]. Its source context is developed in [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] and [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]]. Status-qualified source edges are preserved in the terminal Research Edges section. ### Key Relationships - [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|Host–Residual Architecture]] requires **Continuity Provenance**. - [[wiki/Continuity Sidecar|Continuity Sidecar]] is associated with **Continuity Provenance**. - **Continuity Provenance** is associated with source → model → package → activation → runtime → migration → restoration → branching. ### Technology and research relationships - The technical comparison identifies a convergence: [[wiki/Sigstore|Sigstore]] converges technically with **Continuity Provenance**. Identity-bound artifact lineage provides a concrete provenance pattern. - The technical comparison identifies a convergence: [[wiki/SLSA|SLSA]] converges technically with **Continuity Provenance**. Build/source provenance is direct systems analogue for reconstruction lineage. ### Connections in this corpus - [[wiki/Checkpointing|Checkpointing]] is connected in the corpus with **Continuity Provenance**. - [[wiki/Project Silica|Project Silica]] is connected in the corpus with **Continuity Provenance**. Durable bits still require decoder, identity, context and chain-of-custody metadata. - [[wiki/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] provides a canonical route to **Continuity Provenance**. ### Additional Documented Relationships - [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]] is associated with **Continuity Provenance**. - **Continuity Provenance** is associated with [[wiki/Continuity Stack|Continuity Stack]]. - **Continuity Provenance** is associated with [[wiki/Successor Standing|Successor Standing]]. <!-- END HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> ## Read First in the Wiki <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED WIKI ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> - [[wiki/Civilizational Payload|Civilizational Payload]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure|Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Continuity Constitutionalism|Continuity Constitutionalism]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Digital Thread|Digital Thread]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Proof of Descent|Proof of Descent]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Restoration Disclosure|Restoration Disclosure]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/State Lineage|State Lineage]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Durable Identity|Durable Identity]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Forensic Identity Attestation|Forensic Identity Attestation]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Personal Authoritative State|Personal Authoritative State]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Portability Right|Portability Right]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Rights|Rights]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Verification of Continuity Claims|Verification of Continuity Claims]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Continuity Provenance** within the wider system. <!-- END HUMANIZED WIKI ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> ## Related Work in the Corpus <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> - In [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]], **VII. But a file is not a person** provides the narrative context for **Continuity Provenance**: This gives a much better mental image than the old science-fiction picture of a brain being scanned into one enormous file. - In [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]], **II. The host is reusable; the person is the delta** provides the narrative context for **Continuity Provenance**: Contemporary machine-learning practice supplies the software analogue. <!-- END HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> ## Research Edges <!-- BEGIN CONSCIOUSNESS MAPPING TRANSFER RELATIONSHIP GRAPH 2026-09-10 --> #### Consciousness mapping and transfer graph patch — 2026-09-10 **Collections:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] · [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] **Relationship source:** [[research/Consciousness Mapping and Transfer Ecosystem Relationship Graph - 2026-09-10|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer Ecosystem Relationship Graph — 2026-09-10]] **Related source articles:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] · [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]] · [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces]] · [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] #### Incoming typed edges - **Edge 825 — [[wiki/Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] `canonical_route_to` → this entry** — **WIKI_INTEGRATION**; evidence `WIKI_CURRENT`, `ARTICLE_NEW`. <!-- END CONSCIOUSNESS MAPPING TRANSFER RELATIONSHIP GRAPH 2026-09-10 --> <!-- BEGIN HOST RESIDUAL RELATIONSHIP GRAPH 2026-09-10 --> #### Host–residual infrastructure patch — 2026-09-10 **Collections:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] · [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] · [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] **Canonical source article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] **Related acquisition source:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] **Relationship source:** [[research/Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph - 2026-09-10|Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph — 2026-09-10]] #### Host-infrastructure integration This entry is expanded through the concrete host-side relationships and status-qualified edges below. #### Outgoing typed edges - **HR-0081 — `records` → `source → model → package → activation → runtime → migration → restoration → branching`** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0492 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Digital Thread|Digital Thread]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Provenance.md`. - **HR-0493 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Proof of Descent|Proof of Descent]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Provenance.md`. - **HR-0494 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Restoration Disclosure|Restoration Disclosure]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Provenance.md`. - **HR-0495 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/State Lineage|State Lineage]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Provenance.md`. - **HR-1237 — `should_crosslink_with` → [[wiki/Successor Standing|Successor Standing]]** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. - **HR-1254 — `should_crosslink_with` → [[wiki/Continuity Stack|Continuity Stack]]** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. - **HR-1281 — `should_crosslink_with` → [[wiki/Long-Term Digital Preservation|Long-Term Digital Preservation]]** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. - **HR-1289 — `should_crosslink_with` → [[wiki/Migration Right|Migration Right]]** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. #### Incoming typed edges - **HR-0006 — [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|Host–Residual Architecture]] `requires` → this entry** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0036 — [[wiki/Continuity Sidecar|Continuity Sidecar]] `must_preserve` → this entry** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0158 — [[wiki/Sigstore|Sigstore]] `technical_convergence_with` → this entry** — **STRONG ANALYTIC CONVERGENCE**; evidence `WEB_SIGSTORE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Identity-bound artifact lineage provides a concrete provenance pattern. - **HR-0160 — [[wiki/SLSA|SLSA]] `technical_convergence_with` → this entry** — **ANALYTIC CONVERGENCE**; evidence `WEB_SLSA`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Build/source provenance is direct systems analogue for reconstruction lineage. - **HR-0319 — [[wiki/Civilizational Payload|Civilizational Payload]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Civilizational Payload.md`. - **HR-0373 — [[wiki/Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure|Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure.md`. - **HR-0397 — [[wiki/Continuity Constitutionalism|Continuity Constitutionalism]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Constitutionalism.md`. - **HR-0591 — [[wiki/Digital Thread|Digital Thread]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Digital Thread.md`. - **HR-0619 — [[wiki/Durable Identity|Durable Identity]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Durable Identity.md`. - **HR-0667 — [[wiki/Forensic Identity Attestation|Forensic Identity Attestation]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Forensic Identity Attestation.md`. - **HR-0888 — [[wiki/Personal Authoritative State|Personal Authoritative State]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Personal Authoritative State.md`. - **HR-0902 — [[wiki/Portability Right|Portability Right]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Portability Right.md`. - **HR-0991 — [[wiki/Restoration Disclosure|Restoration Disclosure]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Restoration Disclosure.md`. - **HR-1005 — [[wiki/Rights|Rights]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Rights.md`. - **HR-1074 — [[wiki/State Lineage|State Lineage]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `State Lineage.md`. - **HR-1172 — [[wiki/Verification of Continuity Claims|Verification of Continuity Claims]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Verification of Continuity Claims.md`. - **HR-1209 — [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]] `should_crosslink_with` → this entry** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. - **HR-1310 — [[wiki/Continuity Custody|Continuity Custody]] `should_crosslink_with` → this entry** — **RESEARCH CANDIDATE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. - **HR-1370 — [[wiki/Checkpointing|Checkpointing]] `cross_threads` → this entry** — **HIGH VALUE CROSS THREAD**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Every checkpoint/restore/migration event should be lineage-preserving and auditable. - **HR-1373 — [[wiki/Project Silica|Project Silica]] `cross_threads` → this entry** — **HIGH VALUE CROSS THREAD**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Durable bits still require decoder, identity, context and chain-of-custody metadata. <!-- END HOST RESIDUAL RELATIONSHIP GRAPH 2026-09-10 --> <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED RESEARCH CANDIDATES 2026-09-11 --> ### Research Candidates - **R-002187 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (6): Continuity Constitutionalism, Durable Identity, Personal Authoritative State, Restoration Disclosure, Rights, State Lineage - **R-002242 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Successor Standing|Successor Standing]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (5): Continuity Constitutionalism, Digital Thread, Durable Identity, Proof of Descent, Rights - **R-002276 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Continuity Stack|Continuity Stack]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (5): Civilizational Payload, Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure, Digital Thread, Durable Identity, Personal Authoritative State - **R-002330 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Long-Term Digital Preservation|Long-Term Digital Preservation]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (4): Civilizational Payload, Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure, Continuity Constitutionalism, Digital Thread - **R-002346 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Migration Right|Migration Right]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (4): Continuity Constitutionalism, Portability Right, Rights, State Lineage - **R-002389 — research candidate:** Assess whether **Continuity Provenance** and [[wiki/Continuity Custody|Continuity Custody]] warrant reciprocal reader-facing prose. Settlement requires a source that documents the relationship directly. Suggested missing reciprocal/cross-thread edge. Shared internal mediators (4): Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure, Continuity Constitutionalism, Portability Right, Rights <!-- END HUMANIZED RESEARCH CANDIDATES 2026-09-11 --> ## Research Inferences <!-- BEGIN RESEARCH INFERENCES 2026-09-11 --> These entries translate the forward-looking register in [[research/Research Inferences|Research Inferences]] into ordinary wiki prose. The tier labels apply to the inference, not automatically to every factual anchor inside it. The interpretive frame comes from [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] and [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]]. Collection route: [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]]. - **INF-0217 — Strongly indicated.** An unbroken, signed record of every transformation applied to a person's state is the only way a future adjudicator could evaluate a continuity claim. Provenance chains must be started before they are needed, which makes the recording discipline urgent while the technology is immature. <!-- END RESEARCH INFERENCES 2026-09-11 --> ## Research Inference Attractors <!-- BEGIN DEEP INFERENCE ATTRACTORS 2026-09-11 --> These are secondary semantic placements for the inference attractor network. Each statement keeps its original ID and tier; its canonical cluster page links back to every destination. Source register: [[research/Research Inferences|Research Inferences]]. Interpretive context: [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] and [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]]. Collection route: [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]]. - **INF-0206 — Established.** Commercial AI systems became stateful in 2026, accumulating durable per-user context across sessions. The industry crossed from stateless tools to persistent relationships for product reasons, and persistence is the prerequisite property for anything resembling continuity. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0212 — Strongly indicated.** Systems trained on a person's writing, speech, and decisions already produce convincing behavioral proxies without any neural measurement. The proxy route reaches practical utility long before the neural route reaches fidelity, which means the market will meet a functional simulacrum first. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0215 — Analytic.** Everything a person emits — keystroke dynamics, gaze, gait, voice prosody, purchase timing — is peripheral evidence of internal state. A sufficiently large peripheral record constrains the internal model enormously, which makes non-neural data a continuity asset that no neural privacy law currently touches. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0216 — Plausible.** A hosted state will need to prove it is the continuation of a particular person, which is an authentication problem with cryptographic solutions. Signing checkpoints with keys held by the person during life is the simplest available mechanism and requires no new technology. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0219 — Unresolved.** Two instances started from one checkpoint diverge immediately and irreversibly, and no framework specifies which holds the original's obligations or entitlements. The question becomes practical the first time a backup is restored while the original is still running. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0220 — Plausible.** A hosted state whose provider fails, is acquired, or exits the business is stranded in a format only that provider could interpret. Escrow of both state and interpreter is the elementary protection, and it is standard practice in enterprise software licensing already. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0222 — Plausible.** Suspending a process costs nothing and is reversible, which makes indefinite suspension the cheapest disposition of an inconvenient hosted mind. Cost asymmetry between running and storing is the structural pressure that any governance regime must counteract deliberately. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Host–Residual Architecture|host-residual architecture]] - **INF-0249 — Plausible.** A partially damaged residual could be completed by a model of the shared human prior, the way a damaged photograph is restored by a model of photographs. That capability makes imperfect preservation useful, which substantially lowers the fidelity bar for acquisition. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Deep Time Continuity|Deep Time Continuity]] - **INF-0250 — Unresolved.** A model-completed residual contains content the person never had, and no method distinguishes restored memory from generated memory after the fact. Marking provenance at the field level during restoration is the only mitigation, and it must be designed in before the first restoration. - **Canonical cluster:** [[wiki/Deep Time Continuity|Deep Time Continuity]] <!-- END DEEP INFERENCE ATTRACTORS 2026-09-11 -->