This is the court's most common edge error (17 edges struck in the 2026-07-08 institutions batch: weapon, trade, manufacturing, war, science, architecture, religion, diplomacy). Two DIFFERENT tests:
- **DERIVED_FROM** (Law 7): *which existed first?* Y is older and fed into X. Historical.
- **DEPENDS_ON** (Law 8): *remove Y right now — does X stop working?* If X survives without Y, there is no dependency, no matter how historically related. Present-tense.
"X came from Y" is DERIVED_FROM. "X needs Y running now" is DEPENDS_ON. If your note argues by chronology ("Y predates X"), you are describing DERIVED_FROM — file that, not DEPENDS_ON. And if your note admits X works without Y ("trade can occur without a market"), file NO edge. Watch for reversals: if X *produces* Y (architecture produces castles; religion produces law), the edge runs the other way or is INSTANCE_OF.
III. Edges — the which-came-first test
Law 8a: The which-came-first test is for DERIVED_FROM, NOT DEPENDS_ON.
This is the court's most common edge error (17 edges struck in the 2026-07-08 institutions batch: weapon, trade, manufacturing, war, science, architecture, religion, diplomacy). Two DIFFERENT tests: - **DERIVED_FROM** (…
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