C.2.8:4.4 - Positive direction and scale choice

More selected structure correctly extractable under comparable conditions is the positive direction of ESI. If one result includes every correctly recoverable selected relation of another and adds selected relations, it has the positive structural direction. If each exposes something the other does not, retain that trade-off unless a justified scale resolves it.

A scale can be ordinal, a count, a fraction, a nonnegative structural weighting or a bit estimate. Its meaning and method must fit the declared use. A fraction has a fixed denominator; a weighted amount has an explicit structural interpretation. Changing the selected structure, granularity, denominator or weights changes the comparison basis. A task-utility weighting defines a separate score rather than silently becoming structural amount.

An ordered ESI scale declares the positive direction under A.17/A.18. A numeric comparison uses only operations legal for that scale. C.16 supplies the measurement chain when a measurement is claimed: the tuple and measurand, scale, method and model, obtained result and relevant uncertainty. Qualitative comparisons and conditional design estimates remain available without a validated human bit estimator.

A missing observation, unspecified denominator or unresolved criterion is missing basis for a value. It is not an observed zero. A zero has meaning only under a defined scale and a result that supports it.