Contradiction vs Refinement

Two ways a later claim can change an earlier one. A contradiction makes it false — does not drink coffee against drinks three a day. A refinement narrows it while leaving part standing — vegetarian becoming pescatarian, where the constraint on meat survives.

Why it matters in a memory layer

Treating every change as a contradiction destroys constraints that still hold; treating every change as a refinement leaves stale beliefs live. The distinction cannot be recovered from similarity — the refinement in this corpus scores higher than the contradiction — so something has to name the relationship before anything acts on it. Same slot, same subject, opposite correct response.

Connections

Taught in: Contradiction Detection

Used in: ADD, UPDATE, MERGE, NOOP