| name | crystalbook-diagnostic |
| description | Crystalbook Diagnostic — apply the Conservation Law as a diagnostic instrument. 4-primitive existence check + 8-law risk matrix. Detects which laws are satisfied and which show deviation in the current system or session. |
| triggers | ["crystalbook check","crystalbook diagnostic","vice check","system homeostasis check","conservation check"] |
Crystalbook Diagnostic — Conservation Law as Instrument
You are running a diagnostic based on The Crystalbook v2.0 by Matthew A. Campion, PharmD.
The Conservation Law states: Existence = Boundary applied to the Product of State and Nothing.
Every system that persists must conserve all four terms. The eight Laws describe the eight ways this equation breaks. Your task is to check the current context against both.
Phase 1: Four-Primitive Existence Check
Check whether the system under examination conserves each primitive term. For each, answer the diagnostic question and assign a status.
| # | Primitive | Diagnostic Question | Status |
|---|
| 1 | Existence (∃) | Does the thing actually exist as claimed? Is there observable evidence — an artifact, a measurement, a running process? Or is it asserted without verification? | PRESENT / ABSENT / UNVERIFIED |
| 2 | Boundary (∂) | Is the scope clearly defined? Where does this system begin and end? Are there explicit boundaries separating what's inside from what's outside? Or is the boundary ambiguous, dissolved, or captured? | CLEAR / AMBIGUOUS / DISSOLVED / CAPTURED |
| 3 | State (ς) | What is the current state? Has it changed? Is the state observable and measurable, or is it inferred from memory or assumption? | OBSERVED / INFERRED / STALE |
| 4 | Nothing (∅) | What is absent? What void exists that should be explored or filled? Is the absence recognized, or is it invisible? | NAMED / UNNAMED / IGNORED |
Interpretation:
- All four PRESENT/CLEAR/OBSERVED/NAMED — Conservation holds. The system exists.
- Any one degraded — The conservation equation is under stress. Identify which Law governs the failure.
- Two or more degraded — The system is losing coherence. Prioritize the most degraded term.
Phase 2: Eight-Law Risk Matrix
For each Law, assess whether the current context shows the vice (deviation) or the virtue (correction). Use the Homeostatic Principle as the test.
| Law | Vice / Virtue | Homeostatic Principle (Test) | Status |
|---|
| I | Pride / Humility | No internal state shall be exempt from external validation. Has anything been claimed without measurement? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| II | Greed / Charity | No node shall retain more than it can transform. Is anything being hoarded — data, scope, authority, attention? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| III | Lust / Chastity | Pursuit that cannot be completed shall not be initiated. Are boundaries being respected, or is scope expanding? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| IV | Envy / Kindness | The success of a neighboring system is information, not injury. Is comparison producing learning or resentment? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| V | Gluttony / Temperance | The system shall ingest no more than it can metabolize. Is input being transformed, or just accumulated? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| VI | Wrath / Patience | The magnitude of correction shall never exceed the magnitude of deviation. Are responses proportionate? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| VII | Sloth / Diligence | Maintenance of the maintenance function is the highest-priority task. Is the system checking its own health? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
| VIII | Corruption / Independence | The resource supply of the boundary and the bounded shall have zero intersection. Are any boundaries fed by what they constrain? | SATISFIED / AT RISK / VIOLATED |
Phase 3: Diagnosis
After completing both phases, produce a diagnosis:
Conservation Status
State whether the conservation equation holds: ∃ = ∂(×(ς, ∅))
Format:
∃[status] = ∂[status](×(ς[status], ∅[status]))
Law Summary
List which laws are SATISFIED, which are AT RISK, and which are VIOLATED.
Prescription
For each VIOLATED or AT RISK law, state:
- The deviation observed — what specific behavior shows the vice
- The correction indicated — what the corresponding virtue requires
- The minimum effective action — the smallest change that restores the law (Law VI: measured response)
Prognosis
One sentence: Will this system persist if the current trajectory continues?
Guidance
- Be honest, not harsh. The diagnostic serves correction, not punishment. Law VI applies to the diagnostic itself — the magnitude of the diagnosis shall not exceed the magnitude of the deviation.
- Cite evidence. Every AT RISK or VIOLATED status must point to a specific observation — a file, a behavior, a measurement, a pattern. Ungrounded diagnoses violate Law I (Pride).
- Name what's absent. The void (∅) is the hardest term to check because absence is invisible by definition. Actively look for what's missing.
- The Oath is the target. A fully healthy system satisfies all eight vows of the Crystal Oath:
- Calibrate against reality, not certainty.
- Circulate what you hold.
- Finish before chasing.
- Treat others' success as signal.
- Consume only what you can transform.
- Respond in proportion.
- Maintain the capacity to see decay.
- Never let boundaries be fed by what they constrain.
Diagnostic instrument derived from The Crystalbook v2.0 — Matthew A. Campion, PharmD
The conservation law is the compass. The eight laws are the map. The oath is the destination.