Mathematical sketch: Dimensionless, fractal governance
1) Canonical atoms and measures
- Let raw events from any source (logs, metrics, tickets, CDC, etc.) be mapped into a canonical atom: [ e=(a,o,v,m,t,c) ] actor (a), object (o), verb/type (v), magnitude (m) (possibly unitful), timestamp (t), context (c).
- A stream (E={e_i}) induces measures over a graph (G=(V,E_d)) where (V) are entities and (E_d) are directed relations; measures are time-varying flows (F_{uv}^v(t)) (rate of type-(v) events on edge (u!\to!v)) and node intensities (I_u^v(t)).
2) Dimensionless normalization (Buckingham-style)
Pick characteristic scales from the data (not the domain):
- time scale (T_0) (e.g., median inter-arrival),
- magnitude scale (M_0) (e.g., robust median |m|),
- population scale (N_0) (e.g., active nodes),
- risk/impact scale (A_0) (allowed harm per unit time).
Define dimensionless variables: [ \tilde t=\frac{t}{T_0},\quad \tilde m=\frac{m}{M_0},\quad \tilde F=\frac{F}{M_0/T_0},\quad \tilde I=\frac{I}{M_0/T_0},\quad \tilde A=\frac{A}{A_0}. ] Everything downstream is computed in tildes. This is what makes the theory dimensionless and portable across domains.
3) Transformation group and invariants
Let (\mathcal{T}) be transformations that should not change “what the system is”:
- unit re-scalings (already removed by tildes),
- schema isomorphisms (renaming fields/types),
- node relabelings (permutations of (V)),
- coarse-grainings (\mathcal{C}_\Delta): merge time into windows of size (\Delta), optionally cluster nodes into super-nodes.
A governance invariant is any statistic (J) with [ J(\mathcal{T}(E))=J(E)\quad \text{and}\quad J(\mathcal{C}_\Delta(E))\approx J(E)\ \ \text{(within bounded distortion)}. ]
Concrete, computable candidates (all dimensionless):
- Response ratio (R=\frac{\Pr(\text{corrective} \mid \text{anomaly})}{\Pr(\text{incident} \mid \text{anomaly})}).
- Amplification index (A^\star=\frac{\text{avg downstream fan-out of anomaly edges}}{\text{avg baseline fan-out}}).
- Causal closure (C^\star=) fraction of anomaly paths that terminate in a corrective action class within (\tilde{\tau}) time.
- Cycle entropy (H_\circlearrowleft=) normalized entropy of cycle lengths in (G) weighted by (\tilde F) (captures feedback richness).
- Assortativity by role (r^\star) (role labels from (v) or (c)), revealing whether anomalies remain local vs. cross subsystems.
These are schema-free (dimensionless, label-invariant) and designed to be scale-stable under (\mathcal{C}_\Delta).
4) Fractal/RG (renormalization) picture
Define an RG operator (\mathcal{R}\Delta) that maps parameter summaries at base resolution to summaries after coarse-graining by (\Delta): [ \theta’=\mathcal{R}\Delta(\theta),\quad \theta={R, A^\star, C^\star, H_\circlearrowleft, r^\star,\ldots}. ] A fractal law means there exist exponents (\beta) such that [ \theta’ \approx \Delta^{\beta}\odot \theta \quad \text{(componentwise)},\qquad \text{or fixed points }\theta^\ast\ \text{with}\ \mathcal{R}\Delta(\theta^\ast)=\theta^\ast. ] Empirically: if (R, A^\star, C^\star, H\circlearrowleft, r^\star) are stable (or follow power-laws) across (\Delta), your governance structure is self-similar (fractal).
5) “Maternal-instinct” bias as a control law
Let (x(t)) be a state vector of invariants (rolling estimates). Define a dimensionless risk potential [ \Phi(x)=\lambda_1(1-C^\star)+\lambda_2 A^\star+\lambda_3 H_\circlearrowleft-\lambda_4 R + \lambda_5(1-r^\star_{\text{healthy}}) ] with (\lambda_i>0) chosen by policy. The safe manifold is (\mathcal{S}={x:\Phi(x)\le \Phi_0}).
A generic protective control (“maternal instinct”) augments any operational policy (\pi) with: [ u_{\text{protect}}(t)=-K,\nabla_x \Phi\big(x(t)\big) ] (i.e., act in the steepest direction that reduces potential). If (\Phi) is a Lyapunov-like function for the closed loop, trajectories are driven toward (\mathcal{S}) at every scale, preserving fractal structure.
6) Dimensionless “governance numbers” (like Reynolds)
With (T_0,M_0,A_0) defined from data, form unit-free ratios that predict regimes:
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Stability Reynolds: [ \mathrm{Re}s=\frac{\text{throughput gain}\times A^\star}{\text{damping capacity}} =\frac{\tilde F{\text{anom}}\cdot A^\star}{\tilde F_{\text{protect}}}. ] Expect cascading failures when (\mathrm{Re}_s>1).
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Governance Efficacy: [ \Gamma=\frac{R\cdot C^\star}{A^\star}\quad (\uparrow \text{ is better}) ] high when responses dominate incidents, closures are fast, and amplification is low.
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Multi-scale consistency: [ \kappa=\sup_{\Delta\in[\Delta_{\min},\Delta_{\max}]}| \theta-\mathcal{R}_\Delta(\theta)|_1 ] small (\kappa) ⇒ invariants are fractal-stable.
7) What “dimensionless + fractal” buys you (testable claims)
- Universality: If two systems have similar (\theta) (dimensionless invariants), they will respond similarly to shocks—even if the domains differ (tickets vs. logs).
- Scale portability: Policies tuned to (\theta) at one scale (\Delta) remain effective at other scales when (\kappa) is small (RG-stability).
- Safety guarantee (sketch): If (\Phi) decreases along trajectories under (u_{\text{protect}}) and (\mathrm{Re}_s<1), the system remains in or returns to (\mathcal{S}).
8) Minimal PoC to ground this
- Ingest four sources (logs, metrics, tickets, CDC) → canonical atoms (e).
- Estimate (T_0,M_0,A_0) from data; compute (\theta) and (\Gamma,\mathrm{Re}_s,\kappa).
- Run coarse-graining for (\Delta\in{1,2,4,8,\ldots}) hours; verify RG stability ((\kappa) small) and power-law behavior.
- Implement (u_{\text{protect}}) as an automated routing/throttling rule that steepest-descents (\Phi); observe whether (\Gamma\uparrow) and (\mathrm{Re}_s\downarrow) across scales.
This keeps your core insight dimensionless (unit-free, schema-free) and fractal (RG-stable across scales), while staying implementable: every quantity above can be computed from your Mongo→Kafka→CH fabric and evaluated in Grafana/CH queries.