# Terminology Standard

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.

## Status legend

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `provisional` | Working definition in active use |
| `under review` | Contested or pending literature crosswalk |
| `retained` | Survived collision analysis for now |
| `deprecated` | Superseded; keep only for historical reference |

---

## Core triad

### Body

**Status:** provisional

The operational dimension of a Being: how it perceives, operates, and affects its
environment. In Soul Frame: **Body = Action**.

### Mind

**Status:** provisional

The adaptive control and model-building dimension of a Being. In Soul Frame:
**Mind = Model** (adaptive control through models).

### Soul

**Status:** provisional / under review

The evolving relational boundary through which a Being develops identity,
relationships, history, commitments, provenance, reputation, and persistent
influence. In Soul Frame: **Soul = Relation**.

*Note: high collision risk with religious, metaphysical, and folk usages. Retention
depends on whether the relational/systems reading adds explanatory power.*

---

## Entity and status terms

### Being

**Status:** provisional

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.

### Personhood

**Status:** provisional

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.

### APE (Artificial Personhood-Exposing Entity)

**Status:** provisional

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.

---

## Identity and presentation

### Character

**Status:** provisional

A relatively persistent structure of dispositions from which context-dependent
behavior emerges. Distinct from state, role, persona, and identity.

### Persona

**Status:** provisional

Situated projection of a Being into a particular context, purpose, role, and
relationship. Not identical with the Being itself.

### Actor

**Status:** provisional

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.

---

## Construction / provenance descriptors

### Agent

**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.

### 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.`

### 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.

---

## Relational and social terms

### Recognition

**Status:** provisional

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.

### Addressability

**Status:** provisional

Whether interaction can target the entity specifically as an individual.

### Co-adaptive model building

**Status:** provisional

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.

---

## Endings and persistence

### Operational death

**Status:** provisional

The Being can no longer instantiate processes necessary for continued action and
modeling.

### Identity death

**Status:** provisional

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.).

---

## Terms requiring particular care

High risk of collision with established disciplinary usage:

- Soul
- Mind
- Being
- personhood
- agent
- persona
- identity
- consciousness

For each, maintain adjacent terminology and crosswalk notes in `concepts/` and
`sources/`.