Research prototype · Carnegie Corporation

Verify the human,
not just the knowledge.

Threshold is a research prototype for high-stakes knowledge transfer. It gates access behind biometric readiness, physical presence, and verified provenance — so the right knowledge reaches the right person in the right state of mind.

Five layers, one threshold.

01

Knowledge Integrity
Every artifact carries a cryptographic provenance chain. Tamper is detected at every handoff. The system shows the depth of chain so the operator can see how far they are from ground truth.

02

Physical Authorization
Knowledge crystals — hardware-bound NFC tokens — are the root of trust. Knowledge cannot move without the artifact in hand. Co-presence protocols adapted from nuclear launch enforce two-person integrity.

03

Cognitive Readiness
A biometric calming gate observes heart rate against a baseline and runs a guided breathing sequence until sustained below-threshold readiness is held. You cannot start until you are ready.

04

Knowledge Realms
Five-tier classification (personal, public, private, secret, existential) with realm-specific gates. Crossing realms requires the right crystal, the right witnesses, and the right state.

05

Ritual Interface
Designed friction. Slow transitions, deliberate pacing, and weight made perceptible through form factor and sequence. The ritual is not bureaucracy; it is a design pattern that resists the crisis instinct to rush.

Who is behind this.

Grant

Carnegie Corporation — Modern Technologies & Nuclear Risks

Two-year award. Co-publishing on AI hallucination and fragility in nuclear contexts.

Design partner

RISD Industrial Design — Tom Weis (PI)

Doomsday Clock redesign for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Sandia foresight pedigree. West Point workshops.

Working group

Institute for Security & Technology — AI-NC3

April 2026 working session: STRATCOM, Pentagon procurement, LLNL, Palantir AI lead. Vocabulary that grounds this work.

Common questions.