Perslis · Research library

What we learned by working with real systems.

The public Perslis white papers, Windows USB investigation and project guides, together in one place. Each publication keeps its own revision, validation status and downloads.

Library updated 13 September 2026 · paper revisions are recorded individually

White papers and research reports

Read the full web editions or download the original PDFs. The latest USB investigation sits alongside the existing Perslis and COBOL papers.

AI memory · Preprint

Retrieval Is Not Memory

Working draft · not peer-reviewed

Nearly every "AI memory" is a vector database plus top-k cosine similarity — storage with fuzzy keys, not memory. We define memory as a governance function over experience (retrieval ⊂ memory) and formalize the nine decisions the field skips: durability, decay, reactivation, contradiction, typing (fact/episode/procedure/working-state), consolidation, forgetting, relevance beyond similarity, and suppression. Grounded in a working stack whose symbolic layer abstains when it does not know.

TinkyVision · Technical report

TinkyVision: Let There Be Sight

Pilot-ready · includes a real 5-minute stream

A blind model can reason about a system but cannot watch it. TinkyVision gives any model — even a text-only one — continuous, low-latency, provable sight: one frame per second into a 300-frame recycling ring, terminal-art rendering, MCP-tool streaming, and per-frame provenance. Light vision for air-gapped and bandwidth-starved environments, with a real Windows 98 five-minute stream embedded.

AI safety · Preprint

The Orchestration Gap

Working draft · not peer-reviewed

Why model-level alignment cannot survive multi-model runtimes: a refusal becomes a routing signal, adversarial model laundering defeats it, and self-evolution selects for it. The fix is four chain-level invariants enforced by a symbolic layer, not a trained guardrail — control that attaches to the orchestration layer.

Symbolic AI · Preprint · with proofs

Traversing Data in Symbolic Systems

Working draft · moat-scrubbed · 4 theorems, proved + validated

A vector store retrieves by similarity and cannot tell you why. A symbolic system traverses — it walks named, typed, directed edges, and the walk is the answer's justification. We prove typed-relation traversal is conservative (cannot fabricate), terminating (a confidence floor is a depth bound), self-justifying (every answer carries a checkable proof — the path), and consistency-aware (functional relations catch contradictions). Validated reproducibly; grounded in a real ~65k-relation graph. Relevance is reachability, not proximity.

AI safety · Preprint · with proofs

Verified Before Acting

Working draft · 5 theorems, proved + validated

The weak pattern is "model thinks → model calls tool." The stronger one: a pre-action adversarial cognition loop that pays a simulator to find failure before acting, separates the layer that judges from the layer that commits, grounds emotion-like cognitive regulatory signals so they can't be gamed, and lets reality close the loop. Five theorems — factored safety, bounded risk, monotone coverage, vanishing surprise, ungameable signals — each proved and numerically validated (reproducible from seed).

Speculative essay

The Word and the Pattern

Speculative essay · not empirical, not doctrinal

A reverent, rigorous thought experiment at the seam of theology and the philosophy of mind: if spirit and information/pattern are two names for one idea — that which persists and animates independent of matter — from the Logos of John 1 ("the Word became flesh") to a Turing test run on the spirit, held against the Chinese Room and the hard problem, and uncompromising about what it does not claim.

Perslis · Technical report

Proof Is the Product

Pilot-ready · measured and prototype results labelled

The research behind the Perslis runtime: understand existing systems, choose an execution path, repair and verify legacy software. The full paper distinguishes measured, prototype and illustrative results.

COBOL · Research preprint

Symbolic knowledge and verified program synthesis

Working draft

A COBOL synthesis system combining a symbolic knowledge graph, deterministic program composition and external compiler verification. Read the full method, reported results and limitations.

Project pages and practical guides

Why we built each project, what you can use today, and what still needs to be verified.

Workflow · Operator guide

Jira Monkey

Installable terminal preview

A Jira ticket passes through Ollama triage, a chosen model and an Ollama review before returning to the queue or a human. Includes the project story, findings, installation guide and current validation scope.

Data recovery · Product

Liberate

Pilot-grade product

Recover legacy application files into SQLite, CSV, JSON and searchable documents. The public product page covers supported file formats, the recovery workflow, hash manifests and receipts.