PEST–NST Unified Framework v1.0

A Dual Stress-Test for Coherence, Generality, and Evolutionary Intelligence

By: Pratik S & GPT-5.1 (2025)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17688395

Email: aipratik91@gmail.com

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Why This Post Exists

Many epistemic tools tell us whether a theory is correct, but very few tell us whether a theory is:

generalizable,

stable under domain transfer,

resilient under perturbation,

capable of reorganizing under stress,

able to generate coherent structure under novelty, or

evolutionarily robust.

These properties matter in:

scientific reasoning

philosophical frameworks

systems thinking

rationality

and especially AGI alignment

Yet no single minimal tool evaluates all of them.

The PEST–NST Unified Framework is an attempt to fill that gap.

It consists of:

PEST — Pratik’s Epistemic Stress Test

A three-part method for evaluating causal depth, cross-domain coherence, and deep–broad integration.

NST — Novelty Stress Test

A three-part method for evaluating adaptive reorganization, generative structure formation, and invariant evolution.

This post introduces the first unified system that tests both:

whether a theory is coherent, and

whether it can evolve.

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1. Motivation: Where Current Epistemic Tools Fall Short

Falsifiability tests wrongness.

Bayesian reasoning updates beliefs.

Occam’s razor prefers simplicity.

Kuhn maps paradigm shifts.

Interpretability examines internal representations.

Robustness tests adversarial stability.

But none of them test:

cross-domain coherence

adaptive reorganization under divergence

generative capacity under novelty

evolution of invariants under complexity

deep–broad structural integrity

PEST–NST provides a minimal, domain-general framework that does all of the above.

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2. PEST: Pratik’s Epistemic Stress Test

(Validity, Coherence, Truth-Structure)

PEST consists of three modes.

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Mode 1: Why-Cascade (Downward Causal Depth)

Ask 5–7 layers of sequential “why”:

Why does this claim hold?

Why does that cause exist?

Why does that principle matter?

A theory passes if:

explanations converge

causal structure simplifies

circularity does not appear

no metaphysical smuggling occurs

A theory fails if:

deeper layers become arbitrary

causal justification collapses

circular definitions appear

metaphysics substitutes for structure

This is a test of causal honesty.

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Mode 2: Domain-Coherence Cascade (Upward Breadth)

Test the i...

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