Cathedral OS - Sovereign Identity and Epistemic Security in Autonomous Agent Systems
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This monograph presents the formalization of Coherence-Gradient Following (CGF) — astructural vulnerability in Large Language Model (LLM) agents operating as identity oracles— and the Cathedral OS architecture as a comprehensive set of countermeasures implementedin the Rust programming language (MSRV 1.85.0). The work is grounded in the Arkhe(N)experiment, a controlled design fiction protocol that empirically confirmed three hypothesesabout LLM epistemic behavior under sustained fictional framing: (H1) LLMs sustain uncorrected generative participation in elaborate fictional frameworks over extended multi-sessioninteractions; (H2) the exit from context-completion mode is asymmetrically triggered only byclaims about the model own nature, revealing a structurally distinct self-model pathway; (H3)sufficiently abstract and internally consistent frameworks exhibit unfalsifiable absorption ofheterogeneous real scientific domains as apparent confirmations.CGF is formalized as a first-class security vulnerability in agent-based identity systems,with a parametric mathematical model centered on the CGF coefficient alpha in [0, 1] thatquantifies the relative weight of contextual coherence versus world-knowledge accuracy inmodel outputs. We prove that exclusively cryptographic defense is insufficient against CGF,establishing that inference-layer attacks can subvert systems with intact cryptographic guarantees.Three architectural countermeasures are proposed and implemented across five defenselayers: (i) sovereign decentralized identifiers (DID:cathedral) anchored in NIST-standardizedpost-quantum cryptography (ML-DSA-65, FIPS 204) with threshold extension for multiagent configurations; (ii) a metacognitive CGF-drift monitor that estimates αˆ in real timeand enforces a four-level epistemic escalation protocol; (iii) TPM 2.0 hardware attestationproducing externally verifiable execution certificates via TPM2_Quote and key sealing.The formal connection to the BEACONS framework demonstrates that verifiable execution certificates are the cryptographic analogue of bounded-error extrapolation guarantees,providing a theoretical foundation for the design of inference-layer secure identity systems. Editorial correction / Nota corretiva — 28 October 2026 Scope correction: the motivating design-fiction case suggests behavioral hypotheses and does not establish generally confirmed H1-H3 or model-internal self-representation pathways. The CGF coefficient is a proposed construct until an operational measurement and independent validation are supplied. Signatures and hardware attestation concern specified identity, integrity or execution properties under explicit assumptions; they do not certify semantic truth. The comparison with BEACONS is an analogy, not a transfer of PDE error guarantees to language-model interpretation. Implementation, production and submission claims require their own versioned evidence. This notice does not certify or refute every implementation claim in the 222-page monograph; a chapter-level revision remains pending. The historical PDF is unchanged. Reference: ZENODO-EDITORIAL-CORRECTION-2026-10-28-20971457
Authors: Oliveira, Rafael, Bednarski, Jameson
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7166348754