Axiomtheoreticalv1
Every detection system faces a fundamental tradeoff between
Every detection system faces a fundamental tradeoff between sensitivity and false alarm rate — catching more real signals necessarily increases false positives.
Why This Is an Axiom
This is the core principle of signal detection theory (Green & Swets) — a theoretical framework about the mathematics of detection that cannot be violated. It is not specific to human cognition; it is a mathematical constraint that applies to any detection system. The curriculum adopts this framework as foundational for understanding trigger calibration. This is theoretical rather than empirical because it follows from the mathematical structure of probability distributions, not from observation.