Accountability Is Architecture: Governing Sensor Data Before the Program Scales
Mentat argues that accountability for sensor programs is an architectural property, not a policy binder. The same controls show up across drones, license plate recognition, camera estates, acoustic sensors, real-time operations fusion, and edge AI: purpose-bound retention, access that is logged, and models that cannot take a consequential action without a rule and a human. The essay links those six Mentat practice areas and treats governance as something the platform enforces.