Title: Theoretical Foundations of MEG: From Information Gravity to Cognitive Governance
Tags: audit-and-evidence, ai-liability
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A companion paper to the MEG1 technical standard and the MEG2 legal framework. It adds no requirements. Its purpose is to explain why Minimal Ethical Governance is built as it is, by linking each mechanism of the standards to the theory that motivated it. The relation runs one way: the theories explain the design, and a system can comply with MEG without accepting them.

Six bodies of work are summarized, each with its principle, its grounding in outside literature and the mechanisms it motivates. **Cognitive Divergence Theory**, with its three classes of users, lies behind the three compliance levels (N1, N2, N3) and the explanations given at three levels of detail. **False Cognitive Power Transfer**, in its generalized form, lies behind the Mechanism of Cognitive Stimulation and liability for its omission. The **Thermodynamics of Cognitive Power**, where effort saved in generation reappears as the cost of validation, lies behind Thinking Time, the Dynamic Accuracy Index and the Ethical Flight Recorder. **Information Gravity Theory** lies behind the Degree of Ethical Autonomy, the MEG Address, sandboxing and policy invariance. The principle **Rogo, ergo emergo** lies behind the preservation of the questioning loop and human confirmation for irreversible actions. The METEORAIT series is presented as the frame that holds these together.

A summary table lists sixteen MEG mechanisms with their source theory and a type of linkage: grounded, probed or analogical. The paper also explains the transition from MEG 4.6.2 to version 5.0 and gives the identifiers of the related publications.

The working hypothesis stated at the end is that AI amplifies existing competence and does not create it.