http://programmer.ie/tags/persistent-state/ Recent content in Persistent State on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming Hugo en-us Sun, 30 Aug 2026 18:39:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/hallucination-from-first-principles/14-chapter/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 18:39:00 +0100 http://programmer.ie/books/hallucination-from-first-principles/14-chapter/ <p>Chapter 13 ended with a strict recovery invariant:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>repair </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ new candidate state </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ re-measure </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ re-authorize </span></span></code></pre></div><p>and with one additional rule:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>candidate in HOLD </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ do not persist as trusted factual memory </span></span></code></pre></div><p>That second rule changes the scale of the problem.</p> <p>A hallucinated sentence displayed once is transient.</p> <p>The same sentence written into persistent state can survive the conversation that created it.</p> <p>It can then be:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>retrieved </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>summarized </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>copied </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>cited </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>used as agent experience </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>used to fill a user profile </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>inserted into a vector index </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>fed into another model </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>used as a future repair source </span></span></code></pre></div><p>and eventually appear to the system as if it came from somewhere else.</p>