soul-frame/Terminology.md

# Terminology Standard

Canonical glossary for Soul Frame. Definitions here are **working** and subject to
revision after literature mapping and adversarial tests.

**Phase I reconnaissance status:** 2026-08-12 — integrated from
`research/foundations/` notes 001–005 (and note 006 where it bears on Mind).

See also: `concepts/`, `Claims.md`, `ThoughtExperiments.md`,
`research/phase-i-foundations-synthesis.md`.

## Status legend

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `provisional` | Working definition in active use |
| `under review` | Contested or pending further crosswalk |
| `retained` | Survived Phase I collision analysis for now |
| `revised` | Definition changed after literature stress test |
| `deprecated` | Superseded; keep only for historical reference |

---

## Core triad

### Body

**Status:** retained (Phase I)  
**Working gloss:** Body = Action

The operational dimension of a Being: the channels through which it perceives and
acts. Not a fixed physical compartment; artificial Bodies may be distributed and
replaceable without identity replacement.

**Reconnaissance notes:**

| Aspect | Finding |
|---|---|
| Established meanings | embodiment, sensorimotor coupling, actuators, interface surface |
| Adjacent terms | embodiment (enactivism), coupling (cybernetics), interface |
| Conflicts | folk “body” as organism vs functional action channels |
| Soul Frame stance | functional dimension, not biological requirement |
| Survive collision? | **yes** — low collision once functional reading is explicit |

### Mind

**Status:** retained (Phase I)  
**Working gloss:** Mind = Model (adaptive control through models)

The adaptive modeling and regulatory dimension through which a Being interprets
itself, other systems, and its environment and adjusts action.

**Reconnaissance notes:**

| Aspect | Finding |
|---|---|
| Established meanings | cognition, consciousness, intellect, psyche |
| Adjacent terms | regulator (Ashby), good regulator / model (Conant–Ashby), predictive processing, active inference, extended/distributed cognition |
| Conflicts | Mind-as-consciousness vs Mind-as-control; location “inside the head” |
| Soul Frame stance | model-based adaptive control; **not** solved consciousness |
| Survive collision? | **yes with qualification** — strong cybernetic precedent; must disclaim consciousness identity |

Strong precedents: Ashby; Conant & Ashby (1970); extended mind (Clark & Chalmers);
distributed cognition (Hutchins). Mind is **not** simply located inside the substrate
(RN-001 Finding 5–6).

### Soul

**Status:** revised (Phase I)  
**Working gloss:** Soul = Relation

**Revised definition (after RN-001 Finding 14):**

> The **relation-bearing dimension** through which interactions become persistent
> relationships, commitments, provenance, history, reputation, and consequences
> connecting a Being to other systems across time.

**Not** the system/environment boundary itself. Boundary belongs primarily to **Being**.

**Reconnaissance notes:**

| Aspect | Finding |
|---|---|
| Established meanings | immortal essence, spirit, psyche, religious soul |
| Adjacent terms | structural coupling, narrative identity, reputation, legacy, distributed memory |
| Conflicts | **high** — metaphysical/religious usage |
| Soul Frame stance | informational-relational, non-metaphysical |
| Survive collision? | **provisionally yes** if boundary is stripped out and relational reading stays sharp; rename remains an open option (RQ4) |

**Why retain “Soul” for now:** compact name for diachronic relational continuity and
post-operational influence; triad mnemonic. Risk: readers hear metaphysics.

---

## Entity and status terms

### Being

**Status:** revised (Phase I)

**Working definition v0.2 (RN-003):**

> An **autonomous informational individual** exhibiting sufficiently coherent
> dimensions of **personhood** to become an **addressable** entity that is
> **recognized** by other Beings as a persistent counterpart.

Layer stack (not arithmetic):

```text
Being ≈ AutonomousIndividuality + Personhood + Addressability + Recognition
```

**Autonomous individuality** is a multidimensional profile (not binary checklist):
individuability, temporal integrity, constitutive integration, self-maintenance
participation, endogenous viability, adaptive regulation, interactional asymmetry,
identity-preserving transformation (RN-002 B1–B8; renamed from “Being criteria” in RN-003
to avoid false positives such as self-maintaining daemons).

**Reconnaissance notes:**

| Aspect | Finding |
|---|---|
| Adjacent terms | autopoietic unity, autonomous agent, individual, organism, person |
| Conflicts | everyday “being” = any entity; philosophy of being/ontology |
| Key refinement | autonomy alone ≠ Beinghood; personhood layer required for “someone” vs “something” |
| Survive collision? | **yes** with explicit multi-layer definition |

Beinghood is a **profile**, not a single property (H1 supported).

### Personhood

**Status:** revised (Phase III)

Multidimensional *someone-like* profile (P1–P12). Four kinds: descriptive
(default), social, moral, legal — never collapse. Essential layer of Beinghood
v0.2 so autonomous daemons are not classified as Beings. See
`concepts/personhood.md`.

### APE (Artificial Personhood-Exposing Entity)

**Status:** retained

Artificial entity constructed to expose person-like dimensions. Broader than
artificial Being. RN-001 Finding 13: believable personhood-exposing behavior is
achievable before robust artificial Beinghood is solved.

### Autonomous individuality

**Status:** provisional (new Phase I term)

Multidimensional substrate of Beinghood: self-individuating organization with
self-maintenance participation. Distinct from full Beinghood (which adds personhood,
addressability, recognition).

### Systemic Beinghood vs Social Beinghood

**Status:** retained / refined

| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Systemic / autonomous individuality | self-individuating organization (may lack personhood) |
| Recognized Beinghood | counterpart identified and modeled by others |
| Social Beinghood | embedded in persistent reciprocal models, relationships, expectations |

Recognition does **not** by itself create Beinghood (RN-001 Finding 10); it is
constitutive of *social* Beinghood (H7 refined).

---

## Identity and presentation

### Identity

**Status:** revised (Phase I)

What makes temporally separated manifestations the **same** Being (numerical
identity / reidentification), as distinct from:

- **Continuity** — what continues (may branch without unique identity)
- **Lineage** — historical relatedness after branching
- **Characterization** — what the entity is like (narrative/character questions)

**Core formulation (RN-004/005):**

> A Being continues not because its state remains the same, but because its changes
> remain part of one appropriately connected history of self-individuation.
> When that history branches, identity becomes lineage.

### Continuity profile

**Status:** provisional

Multidimensional continuity (not a checksum): causal, organizational, psychological,
autobiographical/narrative, normative, relational — with provenance, address, and
substrate as anchors/evidence (RN-004/005).

### Character

**Status:** revised (Phase III)

Relatively persistent dispositional structure. ≠ state, persona, identity.
Character similarity/change neither necessary nor sufficient for identity.

### Persona

**Status:** revised (Phase III)

Situated projection/mask into context, role, relationship. Multiple Personae
need not fragment identity (H8); isolation of persona stores is a failure mode.

### Actor

**Status:** retained

Technical machinery of manifestation (model, harness, memory, runtime). Actor ≠ Being.
Actor replacement can preserve identity if continuity is sufficient (H6 supported).

---

## Construction / provenance descriptors

### Agent

**Status:** revised (Phase IV)

Function-derived construction (*What should it do?*). Distinguish:

- **Functional Agent** — task executor / tool loop
- **Autonomous Agent** — closer to autonomous individuality literature

Not automatically a Being. See `research/ai-agents/agent-architecture-crosswalk.md`.

### APE / proto-Being / candidate Being (Phase IV usage)

| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **APE** | Exposes personhood dimensions by construction |
| **Proto-Being** | Persistent individuating apparatus without full Beinghood |
| **Candidate Being** | Axes + continuity strong enough for serious Being claims |
| **Heteronomous individual** | Persistence largely externally maintained |

### Spirit (`Sp.`)

**Status:** revised (Phase V)

Public-reflection Character provenance; `Sp.` label; evaluation S1–S10; lineage
begins at instantiation; never identity with source. See `concepts/spirit.md`.


### Ghost (`Gh.`)

**Status:** revised (Phase V)

Authority-bound representation of a real person; governance is part of identity;
genealogy ≠ numerical identity; fidelity without authority = False Ghost (H10).
See `concepts/ghost.md`.


---

## Relational and social terms

### Recognition

**Status:** revised (disambiguated)

At least three senses (RN-001 Finding 8):

1. **Epistemic** — detect/classify an entity
2. **Intentional** — treat as agent with beliefs/goals (cf. Dennett intentional stance)
3. **Social/normative** — treat as counterpart in relationships, obligations, reputation

Soul Frame default for Beinghood v0.2 is intentional + social recognition by other Beings.

### Addressability

**Status:** elevated (Phase I)

Ability for others to target interaction specifically at this entity (name, ID,
channel, credentials). More important than initially assumed (RN-003).

### Co-adaptive model building

**Status:** provisional (deepened in RN-006; Phase II)

Joint evolution of models through interaction — not mere model exchange. Precursors:
Mead, interactive alignment, I-POMDP recursive agent modeling, participatory sense-making.

---

## Endings and persistence

### Operational death / Identity death / Social death / Legacy

**Status:** provisional

Retained. Soul continuity can cross Being-identity discontinuities (RN-005 SF-C055):
relationships and effects may continue when the original Being does not.

### Lineage topology labels

**Status:** provisional (RN-004/005)

`CONTINUOUS | DEGRADED | UNCERTAIN | SUCCESSOR | FORKED | RECONSTRUCTED | USURPED | TERMINATED`

---

## Terms requiring particular care

| Term | Risk | Phase I disposition |
|---|---|---|
| Soul | metaphysical collision | revised (boundary removed); rename still open |
| Mind | consciousness conflation | retain with explicit non-consciousness stance |
| Being | vagueness / overbreadth | multi-layer definition; autonomy ≠ Being |
| Agent | overload (tool vs autonomy) | disambiguate functional vs autonomous |
| Identity | multiple questions collapsed | separate identity / continuity / lineage / characterization |
| Recognition | epistemic vs social | three-sense disambiguation |

---

## Cross-reference

Full source maps: `sources/bibliography.md`, `research/foundations/*-references.md`.  
Phase I synthesis: `research/phase-i-foundations-synthesis.md`.