Value and Goal as Boundary-Relevance Ranking: Causal Boundary Gradients, Goal Stability, and Value Drift under Finite Capacity

Yining Wu · 2026-05-18

Value-goal paper in the agency-semantics spine. Treats value as FDS-value: causal boundary-gradient relevance under finite capacity, rather than moral value, subjective preference, or reward. Separates gross causal boundary gain from net FDS-value after scalarized cost. Introduces risk-weighted value near collapse thresholds, goal-stability indices, predictive-causal dissociation, proxy-boundary divergence and reward hacking, value drift under evaluation deficit, multi-goal vector Pareto conflict, collective goal synchronization demand with Z_sync load factor, and goal hysteresis with recovery lag. Includes bounded logistic risk sensitivity, alignment regularizer, and nine audit protocols.

@misc{wu2026fdsm2,
  author = {Yining Wu},
  title = {Value and Goal as Boundary-Relevance Ranking: Causal Boundary Gradients, Goal Stability, and Value Drift under Finite Capacity},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20262998},
}