Hypothesis

Statement

“Communication Engineering” is defensible only as a software-specific integrative lifecycle profile that connects transmission, meaning, findability, human action, system constraints, verification, and evolution; current evidence does not establish it as a distinct basic discipline.

Discriminating prediction

The profile should produce measurably better decisions or artifact outcomes than applying the strongest adjacent method alone, on tasks requiring all layers. If no incremental benefit appears, prefer the existing field names.

Current assessment

Medium confidence (0.50) in possible profile utility; High confidence that this is not new basic science. Twelve bodies establish comprehensive overlap, but no comparative experiment has tested whether packaging the methods adds practical value.