← System Model

Platform-Agnostic Principles

Definition

The ESGR System Model is platform-agnostic.

This means:

  • It does not assume any specific hardware platform
  • It treats devices as interchangeable signal sources
  • It requires responsibility boundaries to remain constant across implementations

Why Platform-Agnostic

Different platforms provide different signals:

  • Wearables → heart rate, movement, sleep
  • Phones → usage patterns, location, communication
  • Medical devices → clinical-grade measurements
  • Questionnaires → self-reported states

ESGR does not privilege any signal source. All are treated as data inputs to be evaluated by the same standards.

Normalization Principles

Schema-Level Normalization

Data from different sources must be normalized at the schema level:

  • Common data formats
  • Standardized uncertainty representation
  • Consistent metadata requirements

No Source Privileging

No data source is inherently more "true" than another:

  • Clinical data is more precise, not more valid
  • Self-report data captures different dimensions
  • All sources have characteristic noise patterns

Interchangeable Sources

Within quality bounds, sources should be interchangeable:

  • If a wearable provides heart rate, any wearable may provide heart rate
  • If a questionnaire captures mood, any equivalent questionnaire may work
  • Platform lock-in violates ESGR principles

Responsibility Boundaries Remain Constant

Regardless of platform:

  • The four-layer architecture must be maintained
  • Evaluation must remain conservative
  • Interpretation must preserve uncertainty
  • Refusal must remain possible

Changing platforms cannot change what the system may claim.

A wearable-based system and a questionnaire-based system have the same responsibility boundaries.

What This Means in Practice

  • Don't claim more because you have "better" hardware
  • Don't claim less because you have "worse" hardware
  • Treat all data as potentially unreliable
  • Maintain the same ethical constraints across all implementations

Compliance Note

Systems that claim different capabilities based on platform, or that abandon responsibility boundaries when using "advanced" hardware, violate ESGR System Model specifications.

Related