Failure Modes
Scope
This section specifies canonical failure mode categories and boundary statements for MCF 2.2 (Steup, 2005).
Failure Mode Taxonomy
The canonical specification recognizes failure modes across epistemic, execution, and governance domains.
Epistemic Failure Modes
Epistemic failures are failures of evidence integrity as defined in Definitions, inference, or epistemic claims (Steup, 2005; Kelly, 2006). These include failures associated with evidence decay or expiration and violations of the anti-theater principle; see Evidence Logic.
Execution Failure Modes
Execution failures are failures in implementation behavior that do not, by themselves, change epistemic state validity. Execution activity does not substitute for evidence.
Governance Failure Modes
Governance failures are failures of decision rights, accountability, traceability, or boundary compliance (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2015; ISO/TC 176, 2016); see Governance Boundaries and Decision Theory.
Anti-Theater Implications
Theater amplifies failure modes across epistemic, execution, and governance domains and has no epistemic weight (Kelly, 2006).
Non-Operational Boundary
This section does not provide mitigations, controls, checklists, or operational remedies.