Metacognitive Pipeline
Six stages replace the human researcher sitting in front of a computer for hours. The system decomposes the question, allocates resources, generates candidates, evaluates quality, verifies correctness, and orchestrates refinement—autonomously.
Decompose
The research question is decomposed into atomic sub-questions, each targeting a specific information need from a specific modality.
Allocate
Computational resources are allocated across sub-questions based on expected information yield—more resources for higher-yield extractions.
Generate
Multiple candidate extractions are generated for each sub-question using Determinantal Point Processes for diversity.
Evaluate
Each candidate is evaluated across five quality dimensions: factual accuracy, logical coherence, domain consistency, completeness, and uncertainty calibration.
Verify
Domain-expert consensus, adversarial evaluation, and formal verification through proof assistants ensure conclusions are correct.
Orchestrate
The orchestrator decides: accept, refine, redirect, or escalate. Refinement loops continue until the convergence criterion is met.
Convergence: Gas → Liquid → Crystal
Analysis temperature decreases through refinement iterations. The system transitions from gaseous (high uncertainty, scattered fragments) through liquid (clustering, cross-links forming) to crystal (converged, validated answer).
Phase Transitions
Gas Phase T > 0.5
Understanding fragments are dispersed, uncorrelated. Each source extraction produces an isolated signature with no cross-modal connections. High entropy, low confidence.
Liquid Phase 0.2 < T < 0.5
Fragments begin clustering through composition. Cross-modal links emerge (gene-protein connections, tissue context). Semantic structure forms but has not solidified.
Crystal Phase T < 0.2
The answer has crystallized. All fragments are integrated, cross-validated, and formally verified. The trajectory is complete, reproducible, and provably correct.
Under quality-monotonic refinement and sufficient candidate diversity, the analysis temperature T(n) decreases exponentially: T(n) ≤ T₀ · e^(-λn). Convergence to crystal phase is guaranteed in finite iterations.