Beyond Flat Memory
Sovereign Temporal Graphs and Emergent User Topology for AI Memory Governance
Ricky Valentine (Richard Valentine) · 2026-03-31
Abstract
We present the Sovereign Temporal Graph with Emergent User Topology (STG-EUT), a memory governance architecture that combines contamination-aware sovereign governance with emergent per-user knowledge topology. Current AI memory systems store user knowledge in flat, ungoverned structures. This paper identifies the Dual Contamination Problem — a self-reinforcing failure mode in which pre-existing data pollution and AI-generated errors coexist in the same store and amplify each other — and presents an architecture addressing it through sovereign temporal graph governance, emergent per-user topology via unsupervised community detection over human-verified foundational memories, and dual-function identity-aware retrieval where emergent clusters simultaneously narrow retrieval scope and constitute the system's evolving structural model of the user's enduring concerns.