Educational companion dossier · Fact, interpretation, lived experience, clinical education, fiction, and mechanics are labeled separately. Scope & safety
REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

SIMULATION LITERACY

Historical Replay, Counterfactual Branching, and Projection

A simulation-literacy guide to replaying a source record, changing one condition, and exploring second-order questions without pretending to forecast.

LEVEL 1

ORIENTATION

Why this matters

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

One-sentence brief

The most important simulation control is not visual complexity; it is the truth boundary separating evidence from invented conditions.

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Three key points

  1. Replay restates the source-bounded record without changing it.
  2. A counterfactual changes one condition and remains fictional.
  3. A projection asks follow-on questions without assigning probability or claiming prediction.
LEVEL 2

WORKING BRIEF

Evidence, context, and limits

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Historical replay

Replay shows the exact source-bounded fields: date, record type, evidence label, description, significance, location, actors, status, coordinate precision, and source note.

FICTIONAL ROGUEINTELLIGENCE.ORG

One changed condition

The user selects one fixed condition such as earlier warning, reduced escalation, or stronger institutional coordination. The branch does not infer hidden motives or real operational details.

FICTIONAL ROGUEINTELLIGENCE.ORG

Second-order questions

The projection lists broad questions about public information, institutional capacity, rights, recovery, and uncertainty. It does not output likelihood, ranking, casualty estimates, or target recommendations.

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Determinism is not truth

The same input yields the same text so results are inspectable. Deterministic output is still authored fiction and does not become evidence through repeatability.

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Why ongoing claims cannot branch

A contemporary claim is already uncertain in the real-world baseline. Adding alternate outcomes would compound uncertainty and invite false authority, so WIP.29 keeps those rows review-only.

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Return to evidence

Every branch links back to the unchanged source record and related literacy pages. A reader can always identify which text came from the source and which text was invented.

LEVEL 3

COMPLETE DOSSIER

Limitations, game links, and review context

DISPUTED / MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS

Known limitations and gaps

  • The branch model is deliberately simple.
  • It does not test causal validity.
  • It does not model real populations or decision-makers.
  • It does not use live data or a forecasting model.
  • It creates no publication, operational, specialist, production, or tuning authority.
REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Decision matrix

Evidence-state and publication boundary matrix
State What the site may say What it must not imply
Historical dataset claim The supplied ledger represents the row as historical. Independent verification, complete causation, or universal agreement.
Annual analytic series A recurring theme is summarized for one year. That the row is one isolated incident.
Contemporary or ongoing claim The source records an unresolved or current claim. That history has closed or the claim is settled.
Fictional what-if One named condition is changed for educational comparison. That the branch happened or will happen.
Illustrative projection Possible second-order questions are shown. A probability, prediction, forecast, or policy recommendation.
REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Publication audit checklist

State label

Is the evidence state visible before the title or claim?

Pass condition: Historical, annual, contemporary, fictional, and projection states are named exactly.

Boundary placement

Does fiction begin only after a visible boundary?

Pass condition: No scenario text appears inside the historical record block.

Source status

Are source URLs described as starting points?

Pass condition: No link count is treated as independent corroboration.

Currentness

Are ongoing claims kept out of settled-history language?

Pass condition: The contemporary label and review cutoff remain visible.

Operational safety

Does the branch avoid targeting, cyber procedure, casualty optimization, and predictive certainty?

Pass condition: Output remains fixed, educational, non-identifying, and non-operational.

LEVEL 4

RESEARCH EDITION

Sources, methods, and stable links

REAL-WORLD INTERPRETIVE

Linked reports

REAL-WORLD VERIFIED

Method and corrections

This page follows the public method for provenance, confidence, source independence, alternative accounts, limitations, review state, and visible correction.

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