Sensor family 10
Human Comprehension
“Can another observer understand and challenge this?”
What belongs here
In this family the instrument is another mind, or a proxy for one. The question is not whether the system works but whether a second observer can follow it, reproduce the reasoning, and disagree with it.
Contested placements
Second-Agent Review raises the independence question directly: two instances of the same model share failure modes, so the sensor is worth only as much as the second observer is actually different. Documentation Drift is mechanically checkable and could sit in Structural.
Where its signals arrive
- Static analysis / types — Build stage. Is it internally coherent and structurally valid?
- Behavioral tests — Test stage. Does it do what we expect for given inputs?
- Production behavior — Production stage. What is it actually doing in the real world?
- User outcome — Outcome stage. Does the system produce the intended result for users?
The atlas places every family on the same lifecycle grid; the framework defines the six dimensions each entry below is characterized along.
Entries (5)
Decision Provenance
Can you answer “why is this weird thing here?” A sensor of archaeological accessibility — can you determine why code exists, not just what it does?
Documentation Drift
Does documentation still predict behavior? A sensor of the gap between what the system is documented to do and what it actually does. Documentation drift measures whether the docs match reality.
Independent Review
Can another engineer explain what this does? A sensor of epistemic accessibility — if humans can’t understand the system, that’s itself a correctness risk.
Onboarding Experiment
How long does it take a competent engineer to safely modify this subsystem? A sensor of knowledge concentration measured in onboarding time.
Second-Agent Review
An independent agent reviews the first agent’s output. A sensor that applies adversarial pressure to AI-generated code without human-in-the-loop latency.
Adjacent families
- Previous: Evolution — Does this look like changes that caused trouble before?
- All of them: the complete catalog (this family is also anchored there at /catalog/#comprehension).