Impossibility Patterns Finder (IPF) Schema Specification v1.0

Overview

The Impossibility Patterns Finder (IPF) Schema is a machine-readable, versioned specification for documenting theoretical limits across scientific domains. This release provides the foundational infrastructure for systematic barrier checking in AI-assisted research workflows.

What's Included

• Formal JSON Schema (Draft 2020-12 compliant) with validation rules for catalog entries
• Comprehensive Documentation (10,000+ words) covering schema design, validation rules, and implementation guidelines
• Seed Catalog of 11 validated entries spanning computation, physics, statistics, economics, and information theory
• Validation Tools (Python script) for quality assurance and batch processing
• Usage Examples and contribution guidelines for community extension

Key Features

• Cross-Domain Coverage: First catalog spanning multiple scientific disciplines with unified representation
• Typed Relaxations: Each limit includes structured "escape hatches" classified by SCR mechanism (Self-reference, Context, Resource)
• Machine-Readable: JSON format enables API integration and automated barrier checking
• Versioned & Citable: DOI-based versioning with proper academic attribution
• Actionable Guidance: Not just "what's impossible" but "here's how to work around it"

Catalog Contents

The seed catalog includes 11 impossibility results:

Atomic Limits (Single Domain)

• IPF-00001: Halting Problem (Computation, S-mechanism)
• IPF-00002: Rice's Theorem (Computation, S-mechanism)
• IPF-00003: No-Free-Lunch Theorem for Optimization (ML, C-mechanism)
• IPF-00004: No-Free-Lunch Theorem for Supervised Learning (ML/Statistics, C-mechanism)
• IPF-00005: No-Cloning Theorem (Quantum Mechanics, C-mechanism)
• IPF-00006: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (Physics, C-mechanism)
• IPF-00007: Second Law of Thermodynamics (Physics, R-mechanism)
• IPF-00008: Arrow's Impossibility Theorem (Social Choice, C-mechanism)
• IPF-00009: Bias-Variance Tradeoff (ML/Statistics, R-mechanism)
• IPF-00010: Shannon Channel Capacity (Information Theory, R-mechanism)

Compound Limits (Cross-Domain Synthesis)

• IPF-00011: Coordination-Incentive-Trust Trilemma (Distributed Systems/Mechanism Design/Blockchain, C-mechanism) — demonstrates advanced schema features including synthesis components, cross-domain manifestations, and graded references

Use Cases

• Research Planning: Check proposals against known limits before investing time
• Grant Review: Systematic screening for fundamentally flawed proposals
• Education: Teaching students about theoretical limits across domains
• API Development: Building automated barrier-checking tools
• Cross-Domain Discovery: Finding analogous solutions from other fields

Technical Specifications

• Schema Standard: JSON Schema Draft 2020-12
• Validation: Python 3.8+ with jsonschema library
• License: CC BY 4.0 (catalog and documentation), MIT for code
• Format: UTF-8 encoded JSON files

Schema Design Principles

1. Completeness: All information needed to understand and apply each limit
2. Precision: Formal statements alongside plain language explanations
3. Actionability: Typed escape hatches enable systematic workarounds
4. Traceability: Academic references support rigor and reproducibility
5. Extensibility: Optional fields for compound limits and cross-domain patterns

Quality Standards

All catalog entries must satisfy:

• Validation against JSON Schema specification
• ≥1 academic reference with full citation
• ≥2 escape hatches with typed SCR mechanisms
• Plain language explanation accessible to educated non-specialists
• Peer review by ≥1 domain expert (for community contributions)

Getting Started

Validate an Entry

python validate.py catalog/atomic/IPF-00001.json
# Output: ✓ IPF-00001.json is valid

Use in Python

import json

with open('catalog/atomic/IPF-00001.json') as f:
    halting_problem = json.load(f)

print(halting_problem['title'])
# Output: Halting Problem (Undecidability)

for hatch in halting_problem['escape_hatches']:
    print(f"{hatch['type']}: {hatch['description']}")

File Structure

ipf-schema-v1.0/
├── README.md
├── CITATION.cff
├── LICENSE
├── .zenodo.json
├── schema/
│   ├── ipf-schema-v1.0.json
│   └── documentation.md
├── catalog/
│   ├── atomic/
│   │   ├── IPF-00001.json through IPF-00010.json
│   └── compound/
│       └── IPF-00011.json
└── validation/
    ├── validate.py
    └── requirements.txt

Community Contributions

We welcome contributions of new catalog entries, schema enhancements, and validation tools. See CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository for guidelines.

To contribute a new entry:

1. Validate against ipf-schema-v1.0.json
2. Provide academic references and domain expert review
3. Submit via pull request with validation output

Relationship to Other Work

This schema is the reference implementation for the IPF framework described in:

• Williams, Thomas C. 2025. Impossibility Patterns Finder: A reliability layer for AI-assisted research. V0.1. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17388374

The schema implements the theoretical framework established in:

• Williams, Thomas C. 2025. Structural Mechanisms of Theoretical Limits: A Compact Cross-Domain Framework. v1.32. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17083195

Citation

Cite the schema specification:

Williams, Thomas C. 2025. Impossibility Patterns Finder Schema Specification v1.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17393656

Cite an individual catalog entry:

Williams, Thomas C. 2025. "IPF-00001: Halting Problem (Undecidability)." In Impossibility Patterns Finder Catalog v1.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17393656

Future Development

Planned enhancements include:

• Expansion to 50-100 catalog entries
• NLP processing layer for natural language claims
• Web interface for barrier checking
• REST API service (/barrier-check endpoint)
• Integration examples (Jupyter, VS Code, GitHub Actions)

Contact & Resources

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/tcwilliams79/impossibility-patterns-finder
• Issues & Contributions: https://github.com/tcwilliams79/impossibility-patterns-finder/issues
• Documentation: See schema/documentation.md