NOT.6:10 - Architectural Rationale

Complementarity concerns operations, not media count. Two textual forms can support different work, while a text and picture can duplicate the same limited information. The useful whole consists of contributions and the relations through which they can be combined.

Reference and derivation are distinct relations. A variable may represent a quantity of a component; a table value may result from evaluating that variable’s formula. Retaining those relations allows a change to reach the right contribution without making the representations or their subjects identical.

Update intention is also content. A finished state can conceal whether an unchanged value is fixed by the user or merely carried forward. Making that intention recoverable permits local propagation and reveals conflicting demands before one silently replaces another.