PAI-290 · Education

Energy as Evidence: What a Machine Can Prove About Itself

Software asserts. Energy is spent. A power trace is the one account of a machine's activity its own code cannot simply write, which makes energy the natural substrate for a machine that has to demonstrate its behaviour rather than claim it. This course builds that argument and then bounds it, on measured data: which measurement plane can see what, how far a physics model of a body actually predicts, and the two places the meter goes blind. Then it follows one candidate mechanism — a machine proving it is the machine it claims to be — from plausible to nearly dead to rescued, ending at the question that is still open. Every figure carries its source.

Intermediate → Skilled·3 modules · 9 labs·9 lessons
▶ Start the course ← All courses
Module 1

What the meter can prove

Establish that an energy claim is a claim about a measurement plane, and that the body being measured decides whether computation is visible in the joules at all.

  1. L3The body decides what the joules revealShow that the compute-to-actuation ratio is set by the workload, not the chassis, and that it inverts the common assumption.→
  2. L3Which plane can see itShow that a hidden load is visible or invisible depending on which rail the meter sits on, with both readings correct.→
  3. L4The joule you cannot forgeBuild the expected-power model for a body and use its residual as the detection floor.→
Module 2

What the meter cannot prove

Establish the two failure modes that defeat an energy claim without any adversary present, the reporting discipline that catches them, and who is actually entitled to define a measurement method.

  1. L4The leak you find with an IMUShow that energy crossing a subsystem boundary is undetectable electrically, and that a second sensing modality is what finds it.→
  2. L2Verify the instrumentShow that an energy monitor can be entirely dead while producing confident output, and that only a known load reveals it.→
  3. L3Who gets to define the methodShow that a measurement method is adopted, not imposed, and locate the morphologies whose method is still unwritten.→
Module 3

Can a machine prove it is itself?

Follow one candidate mechanism from plausible to nearly dead to rescued, and end at the question that is still open — so the shape of a live research problem is visible, not just its conclusion.

  1. L3The difference between twinsEstablish that two motors of the same model differ measurably, and find that number without buying anything.→
  2. L4Which number can be a nameShow that a coefficient can only serve as an identity if it is individually identifiable, and find which one is.→
  3. L4The fingerprint that meltsShow that the identity dissolves under ordinary operation, find the crossover temperature, and rescue it with the cheapest possible instrument.→