metaguarantees

Metaguarantees are a concept in computer science and formal verification referring to assurances about the guarantees themselves. Instead of guaranteeing a property of a system, a metaguarantee provides assurance about the process or mechanism that is supposed to deliver the original guarantee. This is particularly relevant in scenarios where trust in the system's self-verification or the underlying infrastructure is a concern.

For instance, imagine a system designed to guarantee that a critical data file is always up-to-date. A standard guarantee would be "the file is always up-to-date." A metaguarantee, however, would focus on the system's ability to correctly monitor and enforce this "up-to-date" property. It might state, "the system will reliably detect and report any instance where the file is not up-to-date" or "the mechanism for updating the file will operate according to its specifications with a high probability."

The need for metaguarantees arises when the primary assurance mechanism is itself complex, potentially fallible, or operates in a potentially adversarial environment. It adds a layer of confidence by providing assurances about the integrity and correctness of the systems that are supposed to provide the primary guarantees. This concept is often discussed in areas like distributed systems, security protocols, and formal methods, where ensuring the trustworthiness of the entire assurance chain is paramount. By focusing on the meta-level, metaguarantees help address the "who guards the guardians" problem in computing.