Canonical records
By Ben Saren · 2026.05.28
Placeholder essay. The register and structure are shown here; the final prose is a separate writing pass.
The argument of this essay concerns how a record becomes canonical, and what is owed to the sources it resolves. A canonical record is not the loudest source or the most recent one. It is the version every other version has to answer to.
What a record has to earn
Authority is earned by preserving what is resolved, not by erasing it. The history is kept so that the conclusion can be questioned later, by someone who was not in the room when it was drawn.1
A record earns its authority by preserving what it resolves, never by overwriting it.
This is placeholder reasoning in the right register. The finished essay will carry the specific mechanism; this draft only holds its shape.
- Placeholder footnote. Final references are set in the writing pass. ↩