correction ladder

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

The correction ladder compares the kinds of correction available to an AI system: archived traces, simulated consequences, interface feedback and resistant worldly consequence. Its concern is what can correct failure, rather than the mere possession of sensors or a body. Worldly correction strengthens answerability while exposing others to consequences that may be irreversible.

Explanation

AB presents four schools through the pilot analogy: manuals, simulation, instruction at an interface, and flight in turbulence. The ascent concerns exposure to correction and consequence. It does not establish that a system becomes wise, caring or safe merely by moving into the world.

PB compresses the distinction into archive, interface, simulation and world, and requires a regime to supply the correction a model cannot supply for itself. RB3 instead organizes the four as a map of correction regimes, with distinct powers and dangers; its table is not a taxonomy of physical bodies.

The later two-door discussion qualifies any simple ranking. Representation remains necessary, real systems mix couplings, and no path guarantees safety. The decisive test is whether consequences can revise the workflow and authority, rather than returning only as another optimization signal.

Scope and attribution

Direct treatments in AB, PB and RB3; inherited corrigibility glossary is related, not an interchangeable definition.

AB — The Actual Book

Four schools form an ascent in consequential correction, illustrated by learning to fly.

Occurrence locators: 160.

PB — The Possible Book

The Tractatus compresses the correction regimes and places missing correction in the surrounding regime.

Occurrence locators: 105.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

Four regimes map distinct forms of correction; the two-door qualification rejects a simple hierarchy of illusion and salvation.

Occurrence locators: 158, 159, 186, 187.

Background used in the editorial explanation

General external correction and statements about stakes are background to the differentiated correction regimes.