02 · Cognitive lane Subjective time · adaptive systems

Time is lived within a shaped landscape

Changing how time is experienced requires changing the terrain — not the story. This lane models subjective time as geometry: a five-parameter temporal profile, and the landscapes it moves through.

ΘTNI = (H, W, J, C, B) drag the five parameters
Tap through scenarios 1 / 5
Steady state Balanced across horizon, width, coherence · low jitter · integrated adaptive regime
ψ 0.62 Integrated adaptive regime derived readout — not a sixth axis
effective integration
branch quality
temporal stability
derived indicators — interpretive outputs, not parameters
The temporal field it describes present state reachable future under constraint Horizon tends to extend the cone; width broadens it; jitter perturbs the paths; coherence stabilizes the envelope; branch richness increases possible futures. Their effects are coupled, so the field depends on the full configuration rather than any single parameter alone — separable for analysis, interdependent in behavior. A cognitive reachable-future construct — not a relativistic light cone.
Megan Anderson · AI ARMY, INC. · aiarmy.co · 2026
02 · The framework

Exploring the Temporal Geometry of Subjective Time

The graphics below represent the visual language of the framework and includes figures from the papers and animations to demonstrate ideas dynamically.

Internal time as path length
external time — equal intervals Δt update magnitude per interval
external t 0.0
internal S 0.0
Equal ticks of clock time; unequal amounts of lived time. Switch to bursty updates and watch internal time outrun the clock where the path lengthens.
Attractor landscapes
Regulatedwide valley — flexible, integrated, adaptive
Loopingtight repetitive cycle — high resistance to change
Collapseddeep narrow well — shut down, immobilized
Transitions are shaped by geometry, not belief content. Perturb the system: the regulated basin absorbs and recovers; the loop snaps back; the collapsed well barely moves.
Cognitive cone: reachable future under constraint
The cognitive cone Reachable future under constraint — the construct the hero's five parameters reshape.
Attractor landscapes and temporal strain
Attractor landscapes Temporal strain arises from the geometry of the landscape — its basins, ridges, and barriers — not from the content of beliefs.
Internal time as path length
Internal time as path length Equal intervals of external time can correspond to unequal amounts of internal time, depending on update magnitude.
Cognitive maps vs cognitive graphs in TNI parameter space
Cognitive maps vs cognitive graphs Two complementary modes of representing the same underlying temporal geometry — maps for wide-angle understanding, graphs for stepwise explication.
03 · The papers

The series, in reading order

Published on aiarmy.co first, then Zenodo, then arXiv.

Framework paper · the lane's front door

The Temporal Neuroscience Index (TNI): An Information Geometry of Subjective Time

A five-parameter framework that treats subjective time — horizon, width, jitter, coherence, branch richness — as a low-dimensional projection of an underlying information geometry: integrative, not diagnostic, with particular salience for neurodivergence and trauma.

Megan Anderson · AI ARMY, INC. · aiarmy.co · 2026 · pairs with the interactive radar above

SITE · LIVE
v— · 2026 DOI · pending arXiv · pending Zenodo · pending
2 SITE · LIVE
Meta-theory

Mirror–Recursive Information Field (MRIF): Dual Descriptions, Recursion, and Capacity Envelopes

The layer above the framework: four axioms characterizing which descriptions of an adaptive system are structurally admissible, how dual descriptions must agree, and when recursive self-modeling fails under load.

v— · 2026DOI · arXiv · Zenodo — pending PDF ↓
3 SITE · LIVE
Formal supplement · formal anchor of the cognitive program

Supplement II — Adaptive Systems Formal Supplement

The single formal home for the program's definitions, axioms, constructs, and propositions — the Inferential Coherence Bound, the Ordering-Sensitivity Non-Commutativity Proposition — and the keeper of the locked cross-regime firewall.

v— · 2026DOI · arXiv · Zenodo — pending PDF ↓
4 SITE · LIVE
Applied companion · a clinical and applied companion to the TNI

Temporal Geometry in Practice

Translates the TNI into a clinical and applied vocabulary — a descriptive geometry for trauma, recovery, neurodiversity, and support planning that introduces no diagnoses, no treatment recommendations, and no reduction of persons to pathology.

v— · 2026DOI · arXiv · Zenodo — pending PDF ↓

Firewall note: the parallel with the agentic and physics programs is structural only. The same grammar recurs across regimes; no evidential weight transfers between them. A result in one regime is not evidence about another.

Cite this work · for researchers

Reference the research program

Anderson, Megan. Accountable Agentic Reasoning: A Cross-Domain Constraint Architecture for Events, Cognition, Information Geometry, and Autonomous AI Systems. Research program, AI ARMY, INC., aiarmy.co/research, 2026.
[1]Anderson, M. "The Temporal Neuroscience Index (TNI): An Information Geometry of Subjective Time." AI ARMY, 2026.SITE · LIVEDOI · arXiv pending
[2]Anderson, M. "Mirror–Recursive Information Field (MRIF): Dual Descriptions, Recursion, and Capacity Envelopes." AI ARMY, 2026.SITE · LIVEDOI · arXiv pending
[3]Anderson, M. "Supplement II — Adaptive Systems Formal Supplement." AI ARMY, 2026.SITE · LIVEDOI · arXiv pending
[4]Anderson, M. "Temporal Geometry in Practice: A Clinical and Applied Companion to the Temporal Neuroscience Index." AI ARMY, 2026.SITE · LIVEDOI · arXiv pending
04 · Follow the series

Subjective Time as a low-dimensional projection of an underlying information geometry

The framework, its meta-theory, the formal supplement, and the applied companion are being prepared for release.

Megan Anderson · AI ARMY, INC. · aiarmy.co Cognitive lane · subjective time & adaptive systems · 2026