Interface

1. Canonical Definition

Interface is the boundary condition where one meaning system must accept, interpret, or act on outputs from another meaning system. In Meaning System Science, interfaces are the import and handoff sites for promised reference conditions, signals, constraints, and closure outcomes. Interface conditions determine whether cross boundary interpretation is reconstructable and comparable, or whether drift pressure is imported through unresolved inconsistency. Interfaces are primary observability points for coupling and for topology effects on stability.

This is a structural condition. It is not a statement about intent, morality, intelligence, or education.

2. Featured Lineage

Herbert A. Simon: The Sciences of the Artificial (1969)
Analyzed boundary design and decomposition in complex systems. MSS extends this by treating interfaces as sites where reference conditions and constraints are transferred and must remain reconstructable.

Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star: Sorting Things Out (1999)
Showed how classifications and standards shape coordination across institutions. MSS adapts this by modeling interfaces as transfer points where shared comparability depends on stable categories and closure rules.

3. Plainly

An interface is where one system hands something to another and the receiving system must decide what it is and what it means. When interface rules are weak, teams can act on the same artifact but produce incompatible interpretation.

4. Scientific Role in Meaning System Science

Interface provides the boundary unit required for multi system analysis. It locates where coupling effects become visible, where cross boundary comparability is established or lost, and where constraint and closure failure can arise from transfer conditions rather than local behavior.

5. Relationship to the Variables (T, P, C, D, A)

• T: Promised reference conditions can shift at the boundary, weakening reconstructability and verification across systems.

• P: Authority signals can conflict across the handoff, producing incompatible enactment from the same output.

• C: Ownership, routing, and update pathways can be discontinuous, reducing integration across the interface.

• D: Unresolved inconsistencies can be imported, raising drift rate locally without local origin.

• A: Interpretive load increases at handoffs, consuming regulation capacity and reducing correction throughput.

6. Relationship to the Physics of Becoming

L = (T × P × C) / D

Interface conditions shift L by changing stabilizers and drift rate at the boundary, especially when transfer rules reduce comparability and correction capacity.

7. Application in Transformation Science

Transformation Science uses interface analysis to separate local variance from cross boundary variance, identify where drift pressure is imported, and determine whether stability requires redesign of transfer rules rather than changes to local messaging or incentives.

8. Application in Transformation Management

Practitioners govern interfaces by declaring transfer artifacts, stabilizing definitions and evidence thresholds, assigning cross boundary decision rights, and ensuring correction ownership so closure outcomes remain comparable across systems.

9. Example Failure Modes

• A downstream team receives an artifact without reference rules, so interpretation diverges across roles.

• Two authorities issue incompatible rulings at the same handoff, producing competing baselines.

• Evidence thresholds change across the boundary, lowering comparability between systems.

• Closure outcomes are not transferable, so the same contradictions recur and drift rate increases.

10. Canonical Cross References

Coupling • Meaning Topology • Constraint Failure • Closure Failure • Meaning System Science • Physics of Becoming • First Law of Moral Proportion • Truth Fidelity (T) • Signal Alignment (P) • Structural Coherence (C) • Drift (D) • Affective Regulation (A) • Drift Catalysts (β₆) • Coherence Regulators (γ₆) • Meaning System Governance • Transformation Science • Transformation Management • LDP-1.0 • 3E Standard™