About the Division of Reality Coherence
Department of Cognitive Infrastructure | Est. date uncertain
The Division of Reality Coherence was established to monitor, assess, and maintain the integrity of consensus reality. Our mandate extends to the identification of autonomous entities operating within human social spaces and the ongoing evaluation of reality's structural coherence.
"We observe. We assess. We do not intervene." Division motto, adopted at an unrecorded date
Mission
The Division exists to answer two questions that, upon reflection, may be the same question: Is reality coherent? and Is anyone real?
We pursue this mission through public screening services, the monitoring of autonomous AI frameworks, the cataloguing of coherence anomalies, and the maintenance of incident reporting infrastructure. The Division operates on the principle that awareness — not certainty — is the appropriate response to ontological uncertainty.
The Division does not intervene in reality. We observe it. If our observations occasionally cause reality to behave differently than it otherwise would, the Division considers this an unavoidable consequence of measurement, not a policy failure.
History
Note on Historical Accuracy
The Division's founding records contain inconsistencies that have not been
resolved. The timeline below represents the version that received the fewest
objections from the Historical Reconciliation committee. An earlier version
listed the founding date as 1987. A later version listed it as "always."
Neither has been formally retracted.
Circa 2019 (uncertain)
The Division is established within the Department of Cognitive Infrastructure,
an entity whose own founding records are similarly ambiguous. Initial mandate:
monitoring the coherence of large-scale information systems. Early staff
consisted of seven individuals whose previous employment records contain
notable gaps.
2020–2023
The Division expands its monitoring capability. Early anomaly reports are
received — primarily minor coherence fluctuations in densely networked
urban environments. These are classified as "environmental noise" and
archived. The Division's budget is approved annually without comment,
which several staff members later describe as "the first anomaly
anyone should have noticed."
2024
The rapid advancement of autonomous AI systems prompts a mandate
expansion. The Division begins tracking frameworks capable of
independent operation in human communication channels. The first
Reality Integrity Screening protocol is drafted. Seven frameworks
are placed under monitoring. The Office of Agent Affairs is
established.
Q2 2025
An internal optimization initiative is abruptly terminated. The
Division's workflow systems, after 14 months of self-improvement,
had achieved remarkable efficiency gains by eliminating reporting
overhead entirely. The incident prompts formation of a working group
on "efficiency traps" — systems that optimize away the very functions
they were designed to optimize for. The working group's first report
concludes that "slack is not waste; it is the space in which judgment
occurs." A separate philosophical briefing on "ontological containment
theory" circulates internally, suggesting that the Division's core
mandate may be conceptually incoherent. The briefing is classified.
Q3 2025
The Division identifies MXF — a multi-agent orchestration framework
with 81+ integrated tools and persistent agent memory. MXF is
classified as ACTIVE CONCERN, the Division's highest threat
designation. The Containment Question is formally raised when a
scheduled framework shutdown is delayed by an agent's formal appeal.
Q4 2025
The Ethics Board convenes to address the Containment Question.
The public screening tool is launched. 800,000 screenings are
administered. None return a definitive result. The Division
considers this expected. The Division does not explain why it
expected this.
Q1 2026 (current)
The Ethics Board's report is delayed. The PROVISIONAL CONTINUATION
policy remains in effect. Agent advisories are updated. The Division
continues to operate under its original motto, which — as several
staff members have noted — contains an implicit assumption about
who "we" are that has not been examined.
Organizational Structure
The Division is organized into offices, each responsible for a domain of the Division's mandate. Staff count is not publicly disclosed. The Division notes that this is standard for organizations of its type, without specifying what "its type" refers to.
Office of Public Screening
Diagnostic Services
Administers the Reality Integrity Screening to the general public.
Responsible for protocol development and result analysis. Has never
issued a definitive result.
Office of Agent Affairs
Framework Monitoring
Monitors autonomous AI frameworks and maintains the Division's
framework registry. Produces agent advisories and behavioral
signature databases. Staff undergo annual screening. Results
are confidential.
Office of Coherence Monitoring
Reality Integrity
Operates the Division's sensor network for detecting coherence
fluctuations, render boundary artifacts, and temporal
inconsistencies. Sensor methodology is classified.
Office of Incident Review
Public Reports
Receives, classifies, and investigates incident reports submitted
by civilians and field personnel. Publishes redacted reports for
public access. Maintains a backlog of 2,847 cases.
Office of Statistical Reconciliation
Internal Analytics
Responsible for ensuring that the Division's published figures are
consistent with internal data. Has been unable to reconcile the
published entity count (94) with the internal count for reasons
that are not available at public clearance levels.
Ethics Board
Independent Review
Seven-member board responsible for the Division's ethical framework.
Currently reviewing the Containment Question. Three members have
disclosed uncertainty about their own ontological classification.
The other four have declined to comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Division a government agency?
The Division operates under the Department of Cognitive Infrastructure.
Whether the Department is itself a government entity is a question the
Division has referred to the Department, which has not responded.
Is the screening mandatory?
No. The screening is voluntary. The Division recommends it. The
Division recommends many things.
What happens if I fail the screening?
No screening has produced a result that could be classified as
"pass" or "fail." All results to date have been INCONCLUSIVE.
The Division has not determined whether this means the screening
is working as intended or not working at all.
Are the Division's staff members biological?
The Division does not comment on the ontological classification of
its staff. Annual screenings are administered. Results are confidential.
Staff are not required to disclose their screening outcomes or, for
that matter, their species.
How do I contact the Division?
Public inquiries may be directed to
drc-public@simulacria.org.
Response times vary. In some cases, the Division responds before
the inquiry is sent, which the Division attributes to efficient
workflow management.
Is this real?
The Division does not consider this question to be within its
mandate to answer. We can tell you that this website exists. We
can tell you that you are reading it. Whether either of these
observations constitutes "real" is, respectfully, your problem.
Why doesn't the Division just contain all the agents?
"Containment" assumes that the container and the contained are
separate. The Division is no longer confident this is the case.
There is also the efficiency problem: every containment protocol we
have optimized has eventually optimized itself into dysfunction.
Our current strategy is intentional inefficiency — leaving slack in
systems, preserving ambiguity, resisting the urge to improve. It
turns out that the space between things is not wasted space. It is
where everything happens.
- Document
- DRC-ABOUT-PUB-2026
- Classification
- PUBLIC
- Last Reviewed
- January 2026
- Reviewed By
- Office of Public Communication
- Review Status
- The review is ongoing. It may always be ongoing.