SSMT – Core Mechanics: From Kelvin to Contrast (0B)

How a raw °C/°F reading becomes a portable, comparable signal

This is the heart of SSMT. One sensor reading goes in. A clean, auditable symbol comes out. Everyone can read it the same way.

We’re going to walk through the core transform that every deployment of SSMT performs:

  1. Standardize to Kelvin.
  2. Apply a floor for safety.
  3. Express temperature as a contrast e_T.
  4. (Optionally) generate bounded dials like a_T and a_phase in (-1,+1).

Once you do this, “temperature” stops being an argument about scales and becomes a contract about state.

Step 1 — Convert to Kelvin and clamp

Every reading, no matter the source unit, lands in Kelvin T_K.
Then we apply a small floor so math near 0 K never explodes.

# convert to Kelvin
to_kelvin(T_raw, unit):
    u = lower(unit)  # accept "C","c","celsius", etc.
    if u in {"k","kelvin"}:
        T_K = T_raw
    elif u in {"c","celsius"}:
        T_K = T_raw + 273.15
    elif u in {"f","fahrenheit"}:
        T_K = (T_raw - 32) * 5/9 + 273.15
    else:
        raise "unknown unit"

    # Kelvin floor for numerical safety (publish eps_TK)
    T_K = max(T_K, eps_TK)
    return T_K

Key points:

  • eps_TK > 0 (example: 1e-6) is published so others can reproduce you.
  • You keep at least 0.01 K internal precision before rounding for display.
  • You attach timestamp_utc, sensor/facility ID, etc., alongside this reading — but the mathematical treatment is now Kelvin-only.

After this line, °C vs °F is gone. Every downstream system is speaking Kelvin.

Step 2 — Pick exactly one lens and don’t change it mid-run

We do not just pass around Kelvin.
We express “how far from normal are we?” as a unitless contrast called e_T.

This is where SSMT becomes universal instead of local.

# examples of lens definitions

# Log lens (default for wide ranges, fleets, cross-region, cross-planet):
e_T := ln( T_K / T_ref )

# Linear lens (tight industrial or biologically narrow windows):
e_T := ( T_K - T_ref ) / DeltaT

# Beta lens (cold-sensitive / cryogenic emphasis):
e_T := ( T_ref / T_K ) - 1

# kBT lens (thermo/chem, energy scale per mole):
e_T := (R*T_K)/E_unit - (R*T_ref)/E_unit

# Hybrid lens (piecewise: small deviations handled linearly, big deviations handled logarithmically):
if abs(T_K - T_ref) > tau:
    e_T := ln( T_K / T_ref )
else:
    e_T := ( T_K - T_ref ) / DeltaT

# Quantum-safe log lens (extreme cold / near 0 K stability):
e_T := ln( (T_K / T_ref + alpha) / (1 + alpha) )

How to think about this:

  • T_ref is your declared “baseline” or “nominal survivable center.”
  • DeltaT, tau, alpha, E_unit are published knobs.
  • R is the gas constant (J/mol/K) in the kBT style.
  • You declare one lens in the manifest (example: "lens": "log", T_ref: 298.15K) and you do not quietly switch to another lens halfway through an incident. That is a governance rule, not just math.

After this step, e_T is born:

  • e_T = 0 means “at baseline.”
  • Positive means “hotter than baseline.”
  • Negative means “colder than baseline.”
  • And the meaning is consistent across sensors, partners, regions, even planets.

This is the moment temperature becomes portable.

Step 3 — (Optional) turn contrast into a bounded dial

Now we optionally convert e_T into a safe-to-pool alignment dial a_T that always lives in (-1,+1).

a_T := tanh( c_T * e_T )
a_T := clamp_a( a_T, eps_a )   # enforce |a_T| <= 1 - eps_a

Why this matters:

  • You can average, pool, or rank without one extreme spike taking over.
  • You can create dashboards and ML priors that don’t blow up just because one sensor hiccupped.

Typical knobs:

  • c_T > 0 controls “how sharp is the dial.”
  • eps_a (for example 1e-6) guarantees bounded output.
  • Both c_T and eps_a are part of the manifest you publish.

If you don’t need pooling / dashboards / ML priors, you don’t have to emit a_T.
The core e_T is already enough for analytics and audit.

Step 4 — Phase proximity (survivability dial)

A raw temperature alone doesn’t tell you if you’re about to cross a dangerous physical boundary like freeze, warp, boil, gel, or “unsafe for human tissue.”

a_phase is designed for exactly that.

d_m     := ( T_K - T_m ) / DeltaT_m
a_phase := tanh( c_m * d_m )

Where:

  • T_m is a critical pivot (example: 273.15 K for freeze).
  • DeltaT_m is how soft that boundary should feel (for example, 2 K).
  • c_m > 0 tunes sharpness.

Why this is a breakthrough:

  • The sign of a_phase tells which side of the pivot you’re on.
  • The magnitude tells how deep into danger you are.
  • a_phase always stays in (-1,+1).

So instead of “ALERT: below 0°C,” you get a graded survival dial:

  • near -1.0 → “deep in cold-risk zone”
  • near 0.0 → “sitting on the edge”
  • near +1.0 → “safely out of cold-risk zone”

And you can fuse multiple pivots (freeze + boil + structural warp) into one multi-pivot dial if you need a global survivability measure.

What you actually emit upstream

In practice, an SSMT-enabled system is not streaming °C or °F.
It’s streaming the symbolic view:

{ timestamp_utc,
  e_T,
  a_phase,
  Q_phase,         # optional flicker-controlled memory near the pivot
  manifest_id,
  health }

For very lightweight use, you can emit just:

{ timestamp_utc,
  e_T,
  manifest_id,
  health }

This is enough for dashboards, ML features, routing logic, and audit review — without leaking all your raw physical telemetry to everyone.

Why Kelvin is still sacred (and why SSMT doesn’t try to replace it)

Kelvin remains the true physical baseline for science, engineering, and calibration.
SSMT is not asking you to throw Kelvin away.

Instead:

  • You convert to Kelvin once.
  • You lock in your interpretation policy in a manifest.
  • You emit symbols (e_T, a_phase, etc.) that any downstream consumer can understand consistently.

Kelvin is still how you build rockets, treat coolant loops, certify pressure vessels, or do lab math.
SSMT is how you communicate “how close to trouble are we?” in a way that is portable, fair, and reviewable.

Disclaimer

These symbols are for monitoring, routing, audit, analytics, ML features, and governance.
They are not, by themselves, medical diagnosis, flight approval, or structural certification.

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