Glossary
Each term below is used in the theory in a specific, often non-standard sense. When in doubt while reading, return here.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Interaction | The single substance. Atomic 6-tuple: A, B, local space, local time, mark, protocol. Comes into being only when B becomes aware of A's mark. |
| Pole | One of the two ends of an interaction (A = mark-leaver, B = aware). Intrinsic to the interaction, not a free-standing thing. |
| Awareness | The primitive non-interactional act by which B brings the interaction into being. Not detection. Not itself an interaction. |
| Mark | Informational content delivered from A to B. For composite interactions, the computed result of sub-interactions. For Mass, primitive — the simplest fact of distinction. |
| Protocol | The internal process of an interaction; its subtree of sub-interactions. Processual, not substantial. Not a Form. |
| Mass | The atomic, leaf-level interaction. Has no sub-interactions and a primitive mark. The substance out of which all higher interactions are composed. The origin of all interactions. |
| One Interaction | The universe. Root of the tree. Its interior contains everything we can observe. Its mark is forever hidden from us by construction. |
| Local spacetime | The space and time intrinsic to a particular interaction. There is no universal spacetime; what we experience as "the" spacetime is the interior of the One Interaction. |
| Agent | A bundle of pole-positions tied together by shared awareness. Not a separate primitive — derivative of interactions. |
| Form | A self-maintaining agent at some level above Mass. Manifestation of a stabilized protocol. Exists actively — to be a Form is to do the work of being one. |
| Solidification | Achievement of a self-reinforcing autopoietic loop. The Form becomes a stable attractor against the substrate's dissolution-tendency. |
| Crystallization | Formation of a regular protocol between alike Forms. Through that protocol, the Forms operate as agents of a higher level. |
| Alikeness | Protocol-compatibility between Forms. Two Forms are alike iff they can serve as poles in the same kind of protocol. A functional, not structural, definition. |
| Action | Manifestation of a Form. What the Form does outwardly. A filter over the interaction-potential. |
| Interaction-potential | The space of possible interactions. The "abyss of randomness" out of which Forms emerge. |
| Decay | The substrate's default tendency toward disorder and data loss. Active everywhere. What every Form is working against. |
| Emergence | The substrate's countervailing tendency: the spontaneous crystallization of patterns from high-density chaotic interactions. The source of all Forms. |
| Hub | The structural form of every agent: one downward axis (its own internal protocol, decipherable) and many upward axes (the parent interactions it participates in, indecipherable from inside). |
| Asymmetric Epistemic Principle | An agent can decipher its sub-interactions but never fully decipher the parent interactions in which it participates. Downward science is possible; upward decipherment is not. |
Drawn from Foundations (v0.1) and Epistemic Asymmetry (v0.2). The glossary will grow as the theory does.