Longitudinal Drift - Bryant McGill

# Longitudinal Drift **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Domain:** Neural Interfaces / Measurement Stability **Doc Type:** Technical Constraint Node **Maturity:** Active Research **Primary Source:** [[articles/The Art is Long|The Art is Long: Vespucci of Immortality]] **Related:** [[wiki/Biocompatibility|Biocompatibility]], [[wiki/Neural Data Provenance|Neural Data Provenance]], [[wiki/BCI Metadata|BCI Metadata]], [[wiki/Continuity Telemetry|Continuity Telemetry]] --- ## Definition **Longitudinal drift** is change over time in the relationship between a neural system, its sensors, and the models interpreting their signals. Sources include electrode movement, tissue response, neural plasticity, device aging, changing impedance, and decoder adaptation. ## Continuity Context Without calibration history and provenance, drift can make measurements from different times appear commensurable when their biological or instrumental meaning has changed. A continuity record must preserve not just decoded output but the changing measurement relationship that produced it. ## Relationships  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.  ## Read First in the Wiki  - [[wiki/Neural Data Provenance|Neural Data Provenance]] — supplies the related technology, method, or technical system context needed to place **Longitudinal Drift** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture|Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture]] — supplies the related technology, method, or technical system context needed to place **Longitudinal Drift** within the wider system.  ## Related Work in the Corpus  - 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]], **XIV. Versioning becomes existential** provides the narrative context for **Longitudinal Drift**: A Continuity Sidecar cannot say load the human model.  ## Research Edges  #### 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]] #### Outgoing typed edges - **HR-0742 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Neural Data Provenance|Neural Data Provenance]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Longitudinal Drift.md`. #### Incoming typed edges - **HR-0821 — [[wiki/Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture|Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture.md`.