The Stoned Age: research reader suite and proposed /stonedage/ route

.github/workflows/pages.yml

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ on:
     branches: [main]
     paths:
       - "site/**"
+      - "research/the-stoned-age/**"
       - ".github/workflows/pages.yml"
   workflow_dispatch:
 
@@ -33,19 +34,22 @@ jobs:
           python-version: "3.13"
 
       - name: Verify the site
-        run: python site/test_site.py
+        run: |
+          python site/test_site.py
+          python site/test_research_site.py
 
       - name: Show publication digests
         run: |
           echo "source_sha256=$(python site/build.py --digest)"
+          echo "research_source_sha256=$(python site/build_research.py --digest)"
           python - <<'PY'
           from hashlib import sha256
           from pathlib import Path
           print("approved_preview_sha256=" + sha256(Path("site/index.html").read_bytes()).hexdigest())
           PY
 
       - name: Build the approved release
-        run: python site/build.py --release --output site/dist
+        run: python site/build_research.py --release --output site/dist
 
       - name: Configure GitHub Pages
         uses: actions/configure-pages@v5

research/README.md

@@ -70,6 +70,10 @@ This directory holds bounded research inquiries and versioned papers that synthe
 
 ## Research areas
 
+- [The Stoned Age](the-stoned-age/README.md) — **v0.1.2, AI-assisted review draft**. Altered states, curiosity, religion, cognitive evolution, shared meaning and AI; living paper, illustrated reader editions, talk and shared evidence records.
+
+  Its web edition is planned for `rootsequence.systems/stonedage/`. It is not published yet; see the [publication status](the-stoned-age/README.md#publication-boundary).
+
 - [Conscious Systems](conscious-systems/README.md) — **exploratory, AI-assisted seed; author review pending**. Starts with [what can change about a mind while preserving consciousness](conscious-systems/what-can-we-change-about-a-mind.md), separating experience from report, capability, and authority.
 
 - [What If It All Works?](what-if-it-all-works/README.md) — **exploratory / AI-assisted / author review pending**. Investigates what counts as progress, who benefits, meaningful access, contested ideals, ethical uncertainty, and why imperfection neither excuses harm nor defeats improvement.
@@ -91,12 +95,6 @@ This directory holds bounded research inquiries and versioned papers that synthe
 
 A research area holds a bounded question; a paper proposes a synthesis. Underlying work can contradict and revise both. Do not move material into this directory merely to make a paper or area appear comprehensive.
 
-## Drafts already under review
-
-These links point to existing public draft PRs, not merged research or reviewed publications. Their substantive homes remain on those branches until review resolves them.
-
-- [The Stoned Age, PR #45](https://github.com/Root-Sequence/root-sequence/pull/45): source register, claims ledger, appraisal notes, and linked paper/booklet/essay/talk. Scholarly appraisal and author review remain incomplete.
-
 ## Publication boundary
 
 Public branches and pull requests in this repository are public. They are not private review spaces. Only public-safe synthesis belongs here; private notes and unpublished fiction retain their existing homes and permissions. Website presentation is separate and requires an explicit publication pass.

research/the-stoned-age/.gitattributes

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+*.pdf binary
+*.png binary

research/the-stoned-age/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Change log
+
+## v0.1.1 — 14 October 2026
+
+- Opened public draft PR #45; merge and deployment pending.
+- Added appraisal of all 16 source records with explicit inspection scope and unresolved checks, plus dated metadata audit.
+- Corrected S07 delayed creativity framing in all four editions: self-rated novelty, with persistent convergent-thinking reduction.
+- Added acute-fear context to S06 across editions and strengthened claim-ledger boundaries.
+- Updated source access records and synchronized editable and generated editions.
+
+# Change record
+
+## v0.1 — 2026-10-13
+
+First AI-assisted local review suite. Added a narrative paper, illustrated reader booklet, illustrated web essay, talk, 16-source register, 19-claim ledger and editable conceptual art. Distinguished findings, models, hypotheses and normative arguments. Corrected the expectancy paper's author metadata using Crossref during preparation. No reviewed release, scientific novelty, expert endorsement or publication is claimed.
+
+Next revisions must record changed claim IDs, evidence, interpretation, affected editions and review status.
+
+## 24 October 2026 — v0.1.2 review draft
+
+- Clarified placebo as the creativity follow-up comparator across all editions and the claim record; retained the distinction from within-group improvement.
+- Pinned S15 to the reviewed 2023 version and recorded the selected-source recheck separately from the earlier appraisal.
+- Added an Evidence notes navigation route and stable PDF generation metadata; rebuilt from the existing Markdown/JSON sources.
+- Incorporated main through #44 and reconciled the repository index. Author, scholarly, cultural and deployment decisions remain separate.
+
+### Proposed hosting route, later on 24 October
+
+Rae suggested `/stonedage/` on the existing Root Sequence domain. Added a proposed combined site publisher and Pages workflow using these canonical editions, with a separate pending hosting-approval record. The homepage is unchanged. Publication transforms add a return link, canonical/robots metadata and source destinations; the public release would update only the appraisal's deployment-state sentence. Draft and unfinished-review qualifications remain. No public deployment or change to the research conclusions is included.
+
+### Repository references and provocation wording
+
+Rae clarified that the Root Sequence homepage does not need a Stoned Age link. The research README and parent index record the planned, unpublished web address instead. Replaced “companion provocation” with “working provocation” in the maintained sources and rebuilt editions: “How Drugs Explain the Universe” is framing within this inquiry, not a separate companion text. The evidence, title and review status are unchanged.

research/the-stoned-age/LICENSE.txt

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Original project prose, diagrams and build code: CC0 1.0 Universal, consistent with Root-Sequence/root-sequence. See https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode . This declaration does not apply to cited third-party publications, their illustrations, trademarks or community knowledge. No third-party publication images are included.

research/the-stoned-age/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# The Stoned Age
+
+**Altered States, Human Curiosity, and the Long History of Making Meaning**
+
+Working provocation: **How Drugs Explain the Universe**. This is a framing phrase for the inquiry; there is no separate companion text in this suite.
+
+**Status:** v0.1.2 public draft suite · 24 October 2026 · AI-assisted · author, scholarly and cultural review pending. It remains a working inquiry, with the evidence and review limits recorded below.
+
+Open [the project](index.html), then choose:
+
+- [Living research paper](paper/index.html), with [Markdown source](paper/manuscript.md).
+- [Illustrated booklet](booklet/index.html), [16-page PDF](booklet/the-stoned-age.pdf), [Markdown](booklet/book.md) and [editable content](booklet/book.json).
+- [Illustrated web essay](essay/index.html), with [Markdown source](essay/essay.md).
+- [Talk](talk/index.html), [12-slide PDF](talk/the-stoned-age-talk.pdf), [25-minute outline](talk/outline.md) and [editable slide content](talk/slides.json).
+- [Validation record](VALIDATION.md), [change record](CHANGELOG.md), [source register](research/sources.md), [machine-readable sources](research/sources.json), [claims ledger](research/claims.csv), [method and phased research agenda](research/methods.md).
+
+## Exact proposed home
+
+Repository: **Root-Sequence/root-sequence**. Directory: **research/the-stoned-age/**. The files here are the proposed contents of that directory, including `paper/`, `booklet/`, `essay/`, `talk/`, `research/`, `assets/` and `tools/`. The nested `research/` contains evidence records for this inquiry, not a second organizational research hub.
+
+Rationale: the live root README, PROJECT-CONTEXT, research index, research method, root map and ecosystem map identify this repository as the umbrella inquiry and research coordinator. Existing focused inquiries demonstrate that a bounded research area can live here without claiming a separate institution or novel expertise. No existing Stoned Age/psychedelic/altered-state treatment was found in the inspected main tree or the targeted issue search.
+
+Audit base: main commit `5ba3593f9d1b335e9fbe29ee85eeb77e3a9d1b42`, cloned clean on 2026-10-13. The draft was prepared in a fresh local checkout. Connected repository listing was partial, so it is not treated as an exhaustive organizational census; the canonical live ECOSYSTEM map supplied the broader ownership map. Open PRs #40–44 were inspected at summary level. #42 and #44 also touch research navigation; reconcile that index before merging.
+
+The proposed nearest-index addition is in the accompanying repository patch. The suite creates no new top-level architecture or cross-project ownership. No changes are needed to the public homepage, private projects or fictional canon. A later Wiki entry should be a pointer, if requested, not a duplicated substantive home.
+
+## Publication boundary
+
+Public draft [PR #45](https://github.com/Root-Sequence/root-sequence/pull/45) is open. Merge and deployment remain pending. The draft now proposes publishing the reading editions at `https://rootsequence.systems/stonedage/`, following Rae's suggestion. The combined site publisher requires a separate exact-source hosting approval; its approval record is pending. Merging this branch alone does not satisfy that gate or approve research findings.
+
+The planned web address belongs in this research README and its parent research index. No Stoned Age link is added to the Root Sequence homepage.
+
+## Provenance and contribution
+
+The user supplied the title, subtitle, companion framing, scope, humor and instruction to make a substantial suite, building on the conversation titled Drug Origins Theory. That conversation was read through the connected tool. Some assistant turns were content-reference placeholders and the original image was not reconstructed or reused.
+
+AI assistance supplied the structure, source discovery, interpretive synthesis, prose drafts, diagrams, formats and checks. These additions are not attributed as the user's approved conclusions. No human domain reviewer, Indigenous consultation, experiment or data reanalysis is claimed. The paper itself discusses the risk that fluent synthesis can exceed evidence.
+
+## Source and media reuse
+
+All illustrations are original editable SVG conceptual diagrams, generated from `tools/build.py`; no third-party photographs, sacred motifs or historical reconstructions are used. The project sources are offered under CC0 1.0 consistently with the target repository. Source publications, linked pages, names and third-party research remain subject to their own rights. Their inclusion in the bibliography does not confer endorsement.
+
+## Build and accessibility
+
+The HTML and SVG outputs work offline without JavaScript, external fonts, accounts or analytics. Open `index.html` locally. Semantic headings, keyboard links, visible focus, a skip link, responsive widths and reduced-motion handling are included. HTML is the accessible reading edition; PDFs are not claimed to be fully tagged or PDF/UA conformant.
+
+Rebuild from this directory with `python3 tools/build.py`. HTML/SVG generation uses the Python standard library. PDF generation additionally needs `reportlab`; without it the script generates HTML/SVG and reports the missing PDF dependency. The small renderer supports the formats used here, not arbitrary Markdown. JSON is the authoritative booklet/slide content; Markdown is the paper/essay source. The build regenerates the booklet Markdown and talk outline from JSON.
+
+## Release phases
+
+1. **Delivered: v0.1 review suite.** Four reader formats, shared citations, claims ledger, original diagrams and additive patch.
+2. **In progress: evidence depth.** Full study extraction and expert critique before stronger historical, clinical or evolutionary claims; prioritized details in the method record.
+3. **Then: cultural chapters and revised editions.** Appropriately situated authorship and review, with clear consent and reuse terms.
+4. **Publication pass.** Review the open public draft PR and approve a deployment destination separately. No new repository or hosting account is necessary for this low-maintenance static suite.
+
+A phase is complete when its evidence or review work is complete, not merely when more pages exist.
+
+## Evidence revision
+
+The [source-by-source appraisal](research/appraisal.md) covers all 16 records, distinguishes inspected material from remaining gaps, and records the creativity correction carried through all four editions. Crossref returned 13 of 14 DOI records in this pass; one was rate-limited. Full scholarly appraisal remains incomplete, particularly S01 access and supplements/registrations.
+
+## Review checkpoint: 24 October 2026
+
+This draft incorporates main through #44 and preserves the existing public introduction and privacy fixes. Its research-index entry replaces the old draft-queue pointer. The playful framing and the distinction between findings, hypotheses and editorial proposals remain.
+
+The creativity wording now names placebo as the follow-up comparator across the paper, booklet, essay, talk and claims ledger. The paper and appraisal also distinguish that comparison from within-group improvement. S15 links to the specific 2023 preprint version inspected. The [appraisal follow-up](research/appraisal.md#review-follow-up-24-october-2026) records this pass's selected source checks; it does not replace the earlier appraisal or complete scholarly/cultural review.
+
+All reader editions expose an Evidence notes route. PDF builds now use stable generation metadata so unchanged inputs can reproduce the same files. The [validation record](VALIDATION.md) distinguishes technical checks from remaining research and accessibility work. No homepage, hosting configuration, private project or fictional canon is changed.
+
+## Proposed website route: 24 October 2026
+
+The subsequent route proposal reuses these editions under `/stonedage/`, with a link back to Root Sequence. The [site publisher](../../site/build_research.py) copies an explicit set of reading files and sends other source links to GitHub. This adds no second research home. Its preview remains local; its proposed Pages workflow and publication gate are documented in the [site guide](../../site/README.md#proposed-research-route-24-october-2026). The existing paper, source appraisal and evidence limits remain unchanged.