tegwick
3fbcca209d
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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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Superseded; keep only for historical reference |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):
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: provisional (Phase III will deepen)
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: 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: provisional
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 context. Not the Being itself.
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: provisional
Function-derived construction (What should it do?). Distinguish:
- Functional Agent — task executor
- Autonomous Agent — closer to autonomous individuality literature
Spirit (Sp.)
Status: provisional
Public-personality-derived character. Instantiation begins a new lineage (RN-005); does not inherit numerical identity of the source.
Ghost (Gh.)
Status: provisional
Identity-authorized representation. Defaults to authorized succession/representation, not automatic numerical continuation of the source person (RN-005).
Relational and social terms
Recognition
Status: revised (disambiguated)
At least three senses (RN-001 Finding 8):
- Epistemic — detect/classify an entity
- Intentional — treat as agent with beliefs/goals (cf. Dennett intentional stance)
- 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.