Recoverability
Recoverability asks whether the same tracked system can return to a specified viable or functional regime under stated environmental and intervention conditions.
Recoverability is conditional.
A claim should specify in advance:
- the tracked system / individuation frame;
- the target regime or capability;
- environmental conditions;
- admissible interventions;
- the criterion for successful return.
The frame is part of the question rather than a result to be chosen after the outcome. A checkpoint restore may count as recovery under one functional individuation frame and as reconstruction of a new instance under a stricter causal-lineage frame. Connection Theory does not require one frame-free verdict; it requires the frame to be declared before causal attribution is made.
Recoverability is not identical to current activity.
A system may temporarily stop manifesting a property while remaining recoverable.
Recoverability is not reversibility
Reversibility asks whether a trajectory can be undone. Recoverability asks whether the tracked system can reach an admissible target regime again.
An irreversible process can therefore remain recoverable if another admissible path returns the tracked system to the specified regime. Conversely, a reversible local transition does not by itself establish recovery of the higher-order system being tracked.
Recoverability is also not identical to Organizational Continuity. A reconstructed copy may exhibit equivalent capability without continuing the earlier lineage.
In public biological material, recoverability is the preferred term for discussing whether a living system can return to viable operation without importing protected engineering language from unrelated technical work.