PROJECT QUANTUM LEAP
PROJECT FILE
Specification
The shared rules behind the physical and digital systems.
Project Quantum Leap consists of two primary implementations:
THE ARTIFACT
The physical embedded system.
THE DIGITAL TWIN
ReclamationDay.net.
They may present information differently, but they must agree on the meaning of time, state, milestones, and Reclamation Day.
This document defines that shared contract.
Where implementation and specification disagree, the disagreement should be resolved deliberately.
01 // Authoritative Time
Time is the primary input to Project Quantum Leap.
Every state must be derivable from an authoritative current time and the project timeline.
The digital twin uses the configured project timezone:
America/Chicago
The physical artifact uses its real-time clock as its persistent operational time source.
Network time may be used for synchronization, but core operation must not depend on continuous network access.
Calendar dates are significant.
Reclamation Day, in particular, must be treated as an entire local calendar day rather than as an instantaneous timestamp.
02 // Phase Registry
Phase numbers provide stable identifiers for major system states.
| Phase | State | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Standby | Baseline |
| 1 | Final Year | Fixed |
| 2 | Retirement Window | Fixed |
| 3 | Approaching Totality | Derived |
| 4 | Totality | Fixed |
| 5 | Returning Light | Derived |
| 6 | Twenty Years | Fixed |
| 7 | Reclamation Day | Fixed |
| 99 | The Future Is Bright | Persistent |
Phase numbers describe system meaning.
They should not be reassigned merely to accommodate presentation changes.
New presentation behavior should normally be implemented without changing the phase registry unless the underlying state model has actually changed.
03 // Fixed Milestones
The public Journey is built from five fixed milestones.
| Phase | ID | Milestone | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | first_contact |
Final Year | 23 OCT 2026 |
| 2 | commitment |
Retirement Window | 01 NOV 2026 |
| 4 | totality |
Totality | 04 MAY 2027 |
| 6 | twenty_years |
Twenty Years | 23 OCT 2027 |
| 7 | reclamation_day |
Reclamation Day | 01 NOV 2027 |
These milestones form the durable public Journey.
Operational transition activity must not be added to the Journey merely because it has a date.
SkillBridge, Terminal Leave, TAP, Capstone, Final Out, and similar activity belong to Mission Events.
04 // Derived States
Derived states exist between fixed milestones.
They alter Display State without creating additional public Journey milestones.
Approaching Totality
Phase: 3
Start: 03 FEB 2027
End: 03 MAY 2027
Journey Link: Retirement Window
Approaching Totality begins ninety days before Totality.
Returning Light
Phase: 5
Start: 05 MAY 2027
End: 22 OCT 2027
Journey Link: Totality
Returning Light begins immediately after the final day in uniform and continues until Twenty Years.
Derived states must not replace the fixed Journey milestone used for Journey progress or Mission Event association.
05 // Journey Resolution
Journey State answers:
Which durable chapter has been reached?
Journey State is determined from fixed milestones only.
At any time before Reclamation Day, the current Journey State is the most recent fixed milestone whose effective time has been reached.
Derived states do not become Journey milestones.
Example:
On 15 SEP 2027:
Display State: Returning Light
Journey State: Totality
This allows the presentation to evolve while operational activity remains associated with the correct durable chapter.
06 // Display Resolution
Display State answers:
How should the current moment be expressed?
Display State may resolve from:
- Standby
- A fixed milestone
- A derived state
- The persistent future state
Display State controls:
- phase
- system status
- narrative
- theme
- countdown context
Where a derived state is active, it takes presentation precedence over the underlying fixed Journey State.
This precedence must not alter Journey progress.
07 // Countdown Targeting
Before Reclamation Day, the primary instrument counts toward the next meaningful fixed objective.
Intermediate milestones do not permanently freeze the instrument at zero.
When one objective is reached, the instrument may immediately target the next objective.
Example:
On Totality, 04 MAY 2027, the system may display:
SYSTEM STATUS // TOTALITY
while the countdown instrument has already begun counting toward:
TWENTY YEARS
This is intentional.
The system recognizes the milestone while continuing to move forward.
08 // Reclamation Day
Reclamation Day is:
01 NOV 2027
The entire local calendar day remains Phase 7.
During Reclamation Day:
SYSTEM STATUS
RECLAMATION COMPLETE
PRIMARY INSTRUMENT
MISSION COMPLETE
COUNTDOWN
000 DAYS / 00 HRS / 00 MIN / 00 SEC
All five public Journey milestones are complete.
Mission Events are no longer displayed.
The Reclamation Day content destination is available.
Phase 99 must not begin during 01 NOV 2027.
Reclamation Day receives its full calendar day.
09 // Time Reclaimed
Beginning:
02 NOV 2027
Project Quantum Leap enters Phase 99.
Phase 99 is persistent.
It has no scheduled end.
The countdown is replaced by:
TIME RECLAIMED
The display vocabulary becomes:
YEARS / DAYS / HRS / MIN
Time Reclaimed remains anchored to:
01 NOV 2027
The calculation must be calendar-aware.
Years must not be represented merely as a fixed number of elapsed days.
The system is now measuring elapsed reclaimed time rather than remaining time.
No additional countdown begins automatically.
10 // Theme Registry
Display State maps to semantic visual themes.
| State | Theme |
|---|---|
| Standby / Final Year | Quantum |
| Retirement Window | First Light |
| Approaching Totality | Approaching Totality |
| Totality | Totality |
| Returning Light | Returning Light |
| Twenty Years | Sunrise |
| Reclamation Day | Daylight |
| The Future Is Bright | Daylight |
Themes express meaning rather than arbitrary color changes.
The intended progression is:
Quantum → First Light → Approaching Totality → Totality → Returning Light → Sunrise → Daylight
The physical artifact and digital twin may express these themes differently.
They must preserve their semantic relationship.
11 // Mission Events
Mission Events represent operational transition activity.
They are separate from the public Journey.
Mission Events are associated with one or more Journey chapters.
Their visibility is determined by Journey State rather than Display State.
This allows derived states to change presentation without hiding relevant operational activity.
Mission Events may communicate conditions such as:
NEXT
ACTIVE
TARGET
CHAPTER COMPLETE
Mission Events are not required on the physical artifact.
They are primarily a digital-twin capability.
12 // Content Unlocks
Content destinations become available according to resolved phase.
The current unlock registry is:
| Minimum Phase | Destination |
|---|---|
| 0 | Field Notes |
| 1 | Project Quantum Leap |
| 2 | Reclamation Log |
| 6 | Twenty Years |
| 7 | Reclamation Day |
| 99 | The Future Is Bright |
Unlocks are persistent.
Once the system has legitimately reached an unlock phase, later states must not cause previously available content to disappear.
Derived phases do not imply unrelated narrative unlocks.
For example:
Phase 3 means Approaching Totality.
It does not mean Twenty Years.
Phase 5 means Returning Light.
It does not mean The Future Is Bright.
The semantic meaning of the phase must be respected.
13 // Persistence
Persistent storage must not replace derivation from authoritative time.
The system should follow this rule:
Store what cannot be derived. Derive what can.
Current phase, Journey State, and Display State should normally be recalculated from:
- authoritative time
- fixed milestones
- derived-state definitions
Persistent storage may retain information such as:
- configuration
- calibration
- preferences
- interaction state
- synchronization metadata
- diagnostic information
A stale saved phase must never override a state that can be correctly derived from current time.
14 // Physical and Digital Contract
The physical artifact and digital twin do not require identical functionality.
They do require agreement on shared truth.
At minimum, both implementations should agree on:
- phase identifiers
- fixed milestone identifiers
- fixed milestone dates
- derived-state boundaries
- current Display State
- current Journey State where applicable
- theme identity
- Reclamation Day lifecycle
- Time Reclaimed anchor
- persistent future behavior
The digital twin may additionally implement:
- Mission Events
- Field Notes
- content unlocks
- archive navigation
- development simulation
- extended narrative
The physical artifact may additionally implement:
- physical controls
- local diagnostics
- lighting effects
- infrared interaction
- hardware-specific behavior
Implementation-specific features must not redefine shared state.
15 // Source of Truth
Project Quantum Leap should move toward one authoritative machine-readable definition of its shared timeline and state model.
The current digital twin separates project information into structured data including:
- milestones
- derived states
- Mission Events
- unlocks
The long-term objective is to prevent important dates and state definitions from being independently hard-coded across:
- Hugo data
- templates
- JavaScript
- CSS
- ESP32 firmware
- documentation
Where practical, implementation-specific representations should be generated from or validated against a common authoritative source.
Documentation should explain the system.
Structured data should define the system.
Code should implement the system.
16 // Invariants
The following rules define Project Quantum Leap.
TIME DETERMINES STATE.
STATE DETERMINES BEHAVIOR.
JOURNEY STATE AND DISPLAY STATE ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
DERIVED STATES DO NOT CREATE FALSE MILESTONES.
MISSION EVENTS DO NOT BECOME JOURNEY MILESTONES.
RECLAMATION DAY RECEIVES ITS FULL DAY.
TIME RECLAIMED BEGINS AFTER RECLAMATION DAY.
STORE WHAT CANNOT BE DERIVED. DERIVE WHAT CAN.
THE PHYSICAL ARTIFACT AND DIGITAL TWIN MAY LOOK DIFFERENT, BUT THEY MUST AGREE ON SHARED TRUTH.
Project Quantum Leap has one timeline.
It can have many expressions.
The Future Is Bright.