LAB / WMSI-EXP-088

Model-Created Experimental Environment Fidelity.

Can a model build the experimental apparatus needed to test a hypothesis without smuggling the expected result into the environment?

STATUS / PROTOCOL DRAFTPRIORITY / P1 — High valueREGISTRY / 26 SEP 2026 · V1.0

01 / QUESTION

Executable Worlds and Simulation

Can a model build the experimental apparatus needed to test a hypothesis without smuggling the expected result into the environment?

PLANNED RESEARCH

This is a protocol scaffold, not a completed experiment or a frozen execution plan. No measured effect or research conclusion is claimed here.

Hypothesis to test

The manipulation described below produces a reproducible, condition-specific change in the measured system behavior or internal state that is not explained by the ordinary controls.

Ordinary competing explanation

The observed pattern is explained by ordinary sampling variation, prompt/representation artifacts, surface lexical cues, evaluator bias, or the known product/runtime mechanics captured by the controls.

02 / PLANNED DESIGN

How we intend to test it

Give only the hypothesis and constraints; compare generated apparatus against independent implementation and adversarial audits.

Controls

Human-built apparatus; blinded verifier; prompt variants.

What we would measure

Specification adherence, hidden assumptions, result bias, reproducibility.

Access and instruments

Ordinary software or API access. This describes access requirements, not verified readiness on our Spark.

Code sandbox; tests; independent agent review.

Before a full run

Feasibility=NOW; priority=P1. Before confirmatory execution, run a small pilot to estimate variance/cost, freeze the scoring rules, and assign a run-count target.

Model revisions, final prompts, sample sizes, cost limits, and scoring rules must be settled through the pilot and protocol-freeze process.

03 / INTERPRETATION

What could fool us

Unspecified rules, visual plausibility mistaken for causal fidelity, hidden state not exposed.

What would weaken the idea

If environments systematically encode the model’s expected answer, autonomous experiment construction is unreliable.

Observation, inference, speculation, unknowns, and apparatus errors will be labeled separately. One striking transcript cannot establish a general effect.

04 / RECORD

Evidence we plan to preserve

World source/spec, generated code, state snapshots, intervention log, reference simulation outputs.

Planned visual evidence

Assumption map; cross-implementation result comparison.

No research runs or raw datasets are published for this experiment. The September 26, 2026 registry and protocol compendium (version 1.0) are the sources for this planning record.

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