medicine-wheel

importance-unit — RISE Specification

Relational knowledge tracking — implements the ImportanceUnit as a relationally-accountable piece of meaning carrying epistemic weight, source dimensions, accountability links, and circle depth tracking.

Version: 0.1.0
Package: @medicine-wheel/importance-unit
Document ID: rispec-importance-unit-v1
Last Updated: 2026-03-15

Desired Outcome

Users create epistemically-weighted knowledge systems where:

Creative Intent

What this enables: A knowledge system where not all knowledge is flat. Dream-state and embodied knowledge carry higher epistemic authority in this package’s design (a ranking that is ours, not Wilson’s; see Wilson Alignment). Knowledge deepens through circular revisitation — the system tracks how meaning shifts between the 3rd and 4th circling.

Structural Tension: Between Western epistemology (all knowledge is equal if peer-reviewed) and Indigenous epistemology (knowledge has relational weight depending on source, ceremony context, and circle depth). The importance-unit resolves this through explicit epistemic weighting and source dimension tracking.

Type Definitions

Core Types

type EpistemicSource = 'land' | 'dream' | 'code' | 'vision';
type AccountabilityLinkType = 'accountable-to' | 'deepens' | 'tensions-with' |
                               'emerges-from' | 'gates' | 'circles-back-to';
type AxiologicalPillar = 'ontology' | 'epistemology' | 'methodology' | 'axiology';

ImportanceUnit

interface ImportanceUnit {
  id: string;
  direction: DirectionName;
  epistemicWeight: number;            // 0.0–1.0, dream-state starts at 0.85+
  source: EpistemicSource;
  accountabilityLinks: AccountabilityLink[];
  circleDepth: number;                // First visit = 1, increments on return
  content: {
    summary: string;
    rawInput?: string;                // Preserves original voice
    refinements: CircleRefinement[];  // What shifted between circles
  };
  ceremonyState?: {
    quadrantsVisited: DirectionName[];
    circleComplete: boolean;
    gatingConditions: GatingConditionStatus[];
  };
  axiologicalPillar?: AxiologicalPillar;
  inquiryRef?: string;
  meta: {
    createdBy: string;
    createdAt: string;
    lastCircledAt?: string;
    traceId?: string;
  };
}

Supporting Types

interface AccountabilityLink {
  targetId: string;
  type: AccountabilityLinkType;
  description: string;
  strength: number;                   // 0–1
}

interface CircleRefinement {
  circle: number;
  shift: string;                      // What changed in understanding
  timestamp: string;
}

interface GatingConditionStatus {
  condition: string;
  met: boolean;
  evaluatedAt: string;
}

Module: Unit Management (unit.ts)

createUnit(direction, source, summary)
// Creates a new ImportanceUnit with initial epistemic weight based on source

updateUnit(unit, updates)
// Updates unit content while preserving history

circleBack(unit, refinement)
// Increments circleDepth, records refinement shift, updates lastCircledAt

archive(unit)
// Marks unit as archived (no longer active in the circle)

Module: Epistemic Weight (epistemic-weight.ts)

computeWeight(unit)
// Calculates epistemic weight factoring source, depth, ceremony state

adjustForSource(baseWeight, source)
// dream/land → higher weight; code/vision → base weight

adjustForDepth(weight, circleDepth)
// Weight increases with depth — deeper circling indicates stronger knowledge

Module: Accountability (accountability.ts)

linkAccountability(unit, link)
// Adds an accountability link to the unit

resolveLinks(unit, allUnits)
// Resolves accountability link targets, returns linked units

findGaps(unit)
// Identifies missing accountability (e.g., no human relation, no land relation)

Module: Circle Tracking (circle-tracking.ts)

incrementCircle(unit)
// Advances the circle depth by 1

recordRefinement(unit, shift)
// Records what changed in this circling

detectDeepening(unit)
// Returns whether recent circlings show genuine deepening vs. stagnation

Module: Ceremony State (ceremony-state.ts)

trackQuadrants(unit, direction)
// Records that a direction has been visited

checkCircleComplete(unit)
// Returns true if all four quadrants have been visited

evalGating(unit, conditions)
// Evaluates gating conditions against current state

Zod Validation Schemas

EpistemicSourceSchema, AccountabilityLinkTypeSchema, AxiologicalPillarSchema
ImportanceUnitSchema, AccountabilityLinkSchema, CircleRefinementSchema
GatingConditionStatusSchema

Dependencies

Wilson Alignment

Wilson’s epistemology is relational (2008, pp. 56–57, 127). The weights below are this package’s design, not his: he holds empirical knowledge crucial but not the only way of knowing (p. 58) and needs both empirical and other forms (p. 111), ranking none above the others.

Test Scenarios

  1. Unit creation: Create unit with ‘dream’ source → verify epistemic weight ≥ 0.85
  2. Circle-back: Create unit → circleBack twice → verify circleDepth = 3, refinements recorded
  3. Deepening detection: Create unit with 3 circlings with genuine shifts → detectDeepening → true
  4. Stagnation detection: Create unit with 3 circlings with identical shifts → detectDeepening → false
  5. Quadrant tracking: Visit east, south, west, north → checkCircleComplete → true
  6. Accountability gaps: Unit with no human accountability link → findGaps → reports ‘human’ gap
  7. Weight computation: dream source + depth 3 → computeWeight returns higher than code source + depth 1

Advancing Patterns

Quality Criteria

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