Complete Phase I foundations (SOUL-WP-0002)

Integrate research/foundations notes 001–005 into Terminology, Claims,
bibliography, concept notes, thought experiments, and open questions. Write
phase-i-foundations-synthesis.md, finish SOUL-WP-0002, and mark SOUL-WP-0003
ready for interaction research.
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tegwick 2026-08-12 00:55:09 +02:00
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Canonical glossary for Soul Frame. Definitions here are **working** and subject to
revision after literature mapping and adversarial tests.
See also: `concepts/` for longer concept notes; `Claims.md` for propositions under
evidence review; `SoulFrameIntroduction.md` for the current narrative exposition.
**Phase I reconnaissance status:** 2026-08-12 — integrated from
`research/foundations/` notes 001005 (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 literature crosswalk |
| `retained` | Survived collision analysis for now |
| `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| `deprecated` | Superseded; keep only for historical reference |
---
@ -21,28 +25,70 @@ evidence review; `SoulFrameIntroduction.md` for the current narrative exposition
### Body
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** retained (Phase I)
**Working gloss:** Body = Action
The operational dimension of a Being: how it perceives, operates, and affects its
environment. In Soul Frame: **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:** provisional
**Status:** retained (Phase I)
**Working gloss:** Mind = Model (adaptive control through models)
The adaptive control and model-building dimension of a Being. In Soul Frame:
**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 (ConantAshby), 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 56).
### Soul
**Status:** provisional / under review
**Status:** revised (Phase I)
**Working gloss:** Soul = Relation
The evolving relational boundary through which a Being develops identity,
relationships, history, commitments, provenance, reputation, and persistent
influence. In Soul Frame: **Soul = Relation**.
**Revised definition (after RN-001 Finding 14):**
*Note: high collision risk with religious, metaphysical, and folk usages. Retention
depends on whether the relational/systems reading adds explanatory power.*
> 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.
---
@ -50,61 +96,122 @@ depends on whether the relational/systems reading adds explanatory power.*
### Being
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** revised (Phase I)
A sufficiently coherent and persistent informational system with boundary,
addressability, continuity, adaptive modeling, and recognition as a counterpart for
relationships. Beinghood is treated as degree of systemic coherence and recognition
rather than a simple binary.
**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 B1B8; 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:** provisional
**Status:** provisional (Phase III will deepen)
The extent to which an entity exhibits person-like properties (identity continuity,
agency, memory, character, social participation, etc.). Multidimensional, not binary.
Distinct from beinghood. Unless qualified, used **descriptively**, not as moral or
legal status.
Multidimensional person-like qualities (identity continuity, agency, character,
social modeling, etc.). Descriptive by default — not moral or legal status.
Essential layer of Beinghood v0.2 so that autonomous daemons are not classified as Beings.
### APE (Artificial Personhood-Exposing Entity)
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** retained
An artificial informational entity intentionally constructed to expose one or more
dimensions associated with personhood. Does not assert that the entity *is* a person
morally or legally.
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:** provisional
A relatively persistent structure of dispositions from which context-dependent
behavior emerges. Distinct from state, role, persona, and identity.
Relatively persistent dispositions from which context-dependent behavior emerges.
Neither necessary nor sufficient for identity (RN-004).
### Persona
**Status:** provisional
Situated projection of a Being into a particular context, purpose, role, and
relationship. Not identical with the Being itself.
Situated projection of a Being into context. Not the Being itself.
### Actor
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** retained
Technical machinery through which a Persona is manifested (model, harness, memory,
tools, runtime, etc.). The Actor is not necessarily the Being.
### Identity
**Status:** under review
What makes temporally separated manifestations instances of the same Being.
Continuity-dependent; substrate-independent in the working hypotheses.
Technical machinery of manifestation (model, harness, memory, runtime). Actor ≠ Being.
Actor replacement can preserve identity if continuity is sufficient (H6 supported).
---
@ -114,25 +221,24 @@ Continuity-dependent; substrate-independent in the working hypotheses.
**Status:** provisional
Artificial entity or component primarily derived from functional purpose
(*What should it do?*). May be a component of a Being or itself become a Being.
Function-derived construction (*What should it do?*). Distinguish:
- **Functional Agent** — task executor
- **Autonomous Agent** — closer to autonomous individuality literature
### Spirit (`Sp.`)
**Status:** provisional
Artificial character derived through reflection on a known historical, contemporary,
or fictional personality, typically from publicly legitimate sources.
Example designation: `Albert Einstein Sp.`
Public-personality-derived character. Instantiation begins a **new lineage** (RN-005);
does not inherit numerical identity of the source.
### Ghost (`Gh.`)
**Status:** provisional
Identity-derived representation of an actual person under legitimate authority over
that person's informational identity. Differs from Spirit principally by **authority**
and possible use of private/relationship-specific information. Governance is part of
identity for Ghosts.
Identity-authorized representation. Defaults to authorized succession/representation,
not automatic numerical continuation of the source person (RN-005).
---
@ -140,72 +246,63 @@ identity for Ghosts.
### Recognition
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** revised (disambiguated)
Treatment of a system by other beings as a distinguishable, addressable, continuous
counterpart with which relationships can be formed. Constitutive of *social*
beinghood in the working hypotheses.
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:** provisional
**Status:** elevated (Phase I)
Whether interaction can target the entity specifically as an individual.
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
**Status:** provisional (deepened in RN-006; Phase II)
Recursive mutual modeling among interacting beings (A models B, B models A, and
models of models), producing alignment, divergence, trust, conflict, and related
social phenomena.
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
### Operational death / Identity death / Social death / Legacy
**Status:** provisional
The Being can no longer instantiate processes necessary for continued action and
modeling.
Retained. Soul continuity can cross Being-identity discontinuities (RN-005 SF-C055):
relationships and effects may continue when the original Being does not.
### Identity death
### Lineage topology labels
**Status:** provisional
**Status:** provisional (RN-004/005)
Sufficient continuity can no longer be established between past and future
manifestations.
### Social death
**Status:** provisional
The entity ceases to exist as an active counterpart in the models and relationships
of others.
### Legacy
**Status:** provisional
Causal and informational traces that continue after operational cessation
(works, memories, institutional effects, Spirits, Ghosts, etc.).
`CONTINUOUS | DEGRADED | UNCERTAIN | SUCCESSOR | FORKED | RECONSTRUCTED | USURPED | TERMINATED`
---
## Terms requiring particular care
High risk of collision with established disciplinary usage:
| 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 |
- Soul
- Mind
- Being
- personhood
- agent
- persona
- identity
- consciousness
---
For each, maintain adjacent terminology and crosswalk notes in `concepts/` and
`sources/`.
## Cross-reference
Full source maps: `sources/bibliography.md`, `research/foundations/*-references.md`.
Phase I synthesis: `research/phase-i-foundations-synthesis.md`.