Valence Before Preference

ID: substrate.valence-before-preference

Classify a sensed state as viable, costly, attractive, or aversive before naming a preference.

Status: substrate

Uncertainty

• This substrate principle is an interpretive lens; the relevant substrate and welfare evidence remain case-specific.

Sources

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005272899000651

Claim boundaries

• Substrate reflection is evidence-only and cannot produce a final moral verdict.
• Living-system substrate matches do not prove human-like consciousness, personhood, or final moral status.
• Mechanism, equations, and Fourier/frequency payloads remain owned by the Theory Badge Graph and calculator.
• Valence evidence is a procedural viability signal, not proof of human-like preference.

Diagnostic context only. Cite independent evidence for claims about the world.