Essential, irreducible uncertainty preserved at every level of the stack.
ε ≠ 0 is not a limitation to be overcome. It is the thermodynamic condition that prevents a sensemaking system from collapsing into a MemeGrid. Where ε is maintained, threads remain revisable, knots remain untie-able, and the bow-tie remembers that its bottleneck is forgetting, not truth.
Principle: “ε is the gap that keeps the system alive.”
Diagnostic: Does the system claim ε = 0? Does it present its compressions as complete? If so, MemeGrid conditions are forming.
What It Is NOT: - Not error or noise (it is structurally necessary) - Not ignorance to be remedied (it is the condition of health) - Not vagueness (it is precise about what cannot be made precise)
Failure Mode: Claiming ε = 0—presenting a compression as if nothing was lost, a distinction as if nothing was excluded, a coordination as if no alternatives exist.
Related: Ω-Permeability, Bow-Tie Topology, Sensebreaking, Distinction
Canonical Source: IF-PRIME/README.md, memetic_ecology/8_REGIMES/phi_t_formalism.md