Introspection
The meta-cognitive process of inspecting the system's own reasoning traces, confidence estimates, and calibration history to identify failure modes and propose improvements. Treated as a resource with a cost that must be economically justified, not an unlimited entitlement.
Introspection in the Cognitive Substrate is deliberate and bounded. The meta-cognition engine does not run continuous self-inspection; it runs on a schedule and in response to signals (calibration watchdog alerts, coherence drops, failure streaks) that indicate inspection is warranted. Reading traces, running calibration calculations, comparing predictions against outcomes, and synthesizing strategy findings all consume compute that could otherwise be used for active cognition. Stage 8 establishes the precedent that introspection has a budget; Stage 20 formalizes full introspection budgeting. This discipline prevents the system from spending more time analyzing its reasoning than doing actual work - a failure mode that could occur if self-reflection were treated as free. The budget constraint also means that introspection is prioritized toward the highest-signal findings rather than exhaustive analysis.