A Mathematical Theory of Interpretation: Rational Entropy, Spectral Readout, and Confusability as a Resource

Abstract:This article presents the abridged core of \emph{A Mathematical Theory of Interpretation} (MTI), which treats interpretation as observer-relative spectral measurement under an access structure. MTI makes interpretation a method-design problem: access, query, utility, and medium determine what an observer can select, identify, communicate, or refuse. On a learning-invariant Hilbert realization, Rational Entropy measures residual uncertainty across knowledge, utility, and medium. In the finite-effective regime, we classify its zero set. Pairwise confusability is equivalent to uniform atomic collapse, while a unique utility maximum can select one atom even when other zero-cost states remain non-atomic. This reverses the usual zero-error role of confusability: agreement in at least one observer direction excludes unresolved multi-atom readings, while the joint label preserves identification. The corresponding free-design capacity is the product of all but the smallest direction budget. A four-condition certificate characterizes sharp, decodable, medium-faithful, and order-independent readout on a finite commuting code sector and returns typed obstructions when those guarantees fail. Together, these results establish MTI as a theoretical basis for constructing interpretation methods with explicit access assumptions, guarantees, and failure modes.

Information Theory (cs.IT); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)

arXiv:2608.23892 [cs.IT]

(or arXiv:2608.23892v1 [cs.IT] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.23892 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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