Part 1 — The New Engineering Problem  ::  Chapter 4

1.4 Two Problems the Method Must Solve

The properties of agentic machinery leave two engineering problems. A finite reasoner needs representations that keep relevant system state tractable as systems and tasks grow. Fallible autonomous work needs enforcement outside the producing run so that important obligations do not depend on the producer resolving every consequential judgment correctly.

These problems are related but distinct:

  1. The Representation Problem. Large systems contain far more detail than any one engineering question needs, while the active state available to a reasoner is finite. How should a large, evolving system be represented so that the properties relevant to an engineering question can be reasoned about without continually reconstructing them from implementation? Part II develops MAGE's answer: Modeling.
  2. The Enforcement Problem. Autonomous work can be constrained and checked at the interfaces through which it acts, but the producing run cannot be the final check on its own consequential judgments. How should engineering intent be enforced over autonomous work, so that satisfying important obligations does not depend on the producing agent remembering, agreeing, or self-certifying each time? Part III develops MAGE's answer: Alignment.

The two activities complement one another. Modeling makes selected system properties explicit enough to reason about; Alignment enforces selected obligations over realization. Neither requires the other in every case: useful representations need not become constraints, and some local controls can act without a rich system model. Together, however, they let engineering knowledge and judgment persist outside any one producing run. Figure 1.4-1 traces that derivation.

From substrate to method Two derivations run left to right. In the first, a finite working state raises the representation problem, which the method of modeling answers. In the second, probabilistic productive work over observable, interposable seams raises the enforcement problem, which the method of alignment answers. These are the two core activities Part I derives; Part IV composes them into the MAGE method. From substrate to method SUBSTRATE TRAIT PROBLEM METHOD finite working state Representation problem Modeling represent relevant properties compactly probabilistic productive work observable, interposable seams Enforcement problem Alignment enforce selected obligations Part I derives the two core activities; Part IV composes them into the MAGE method.
Figure 1.4-1. From substrate to method. Finite reasoning state creates the Representation Problem; probabilistic autonomous work creates the Enforcement Problem. Parts II and III develop MAGE's corresponding answers: Modeling and Alignment.
© James C. Davis, 2026–present