Author: Vladisav Jovanović
Status: Preprint
Version: Latest archived (Apr 2026)
This paper proposes the Answerability Protocol: a minimal structural standard for testing whether a claim, output, institution, policy, or intelligence-like system remains answerable to reality. The central problem of the AI era is not merely that falsehoods circulate, but that coherent form has become cheap. Large language models can generate fluent answers without stable grounding; institutions can produce polished reports, compliance artifacts, and values language while exporting cost; public narratives can feel complete while avoiding the conditions that would correct them. The protocol shifts verification from surface adequacy to contact. It asks whether a system can name its claim, ground, falsifier, cost horizon, revision trigger, binding mechanism, and external witness or trace. In the age of synthetic coherence, intelligence is not the ability to appear right; it is the capacity to be corrected.
answerability; synthetic coherence; Structural Intelligence; AI evaluation; institutional audit; grounding; falsifiability; correction; governance; epistemic reliability; standardization; coherence theater