0 TERA JSON Structure state glossary

{
  "glossary": {
    "id": "tera_glossary",
    "label": "TERA Glossary",
    "version": "0.1.0",
    "status": "draft_public",
    "description": "Machine-readable glossary of core TERA terms for human interpretation, code mapping, and later parser or notebook use."
  },
  "terms": [
    {
      "id": "term_signal",
      "label": "Signal",
      "category": "classification",
      "definition": "A viable, correctly coupled trace.",
      "short_definition": "Correctly coupled meaningful trace.",
      "contrast_with": [
        "term_noise",
        "term_artifact"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Signal is not mere visibility.",
        "Signal must remain structurally meaningful under context variation."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_noise",
      "label": "Noise",
      "category": "classification",
      "definition": "An unstable or undirected disturbance.",
      "short_definition": "Unstable or directionless disturbance.",
      "contrast_with": [
        "term_signal",
        "term_artifact"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Noise reduces readability without necessarily creating a false structure.",
        "Noise may still contain latent information when context improves."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_artifact",
      "label": "Artifact",
      "category": "classification",
      "definition": "A stable but falsely coupled false trace.",
      "short_definition": "Stable but wrongly coupled false trace.",
      "contrast_with": [
        "term_signal",
        "term_noise"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Artifacts often look more convincing than noise.",
        "Artifacts emerge through method, interpretation, or hidden coupling errors."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_drift",
      "label": "Drift",
      "category": "dynamics",
      "definition": "State displacement without complete return-flow.",
      "short_definition": "Shift without full return-flow.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_transition",
        "term_resonance"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Drift may be slow, cumulative, and initially hard to detect.",
        "Drift is not yet collapse, but can prepare threshold crossings."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_resonance",
      "label": "Resonance",
      "category": "coupling",
      "definition": "A connectable coupling of information, energy, and effect.",
      "short_definition": "Connectable coupling of information, energy, and effect.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_drift",
        "term_threshold",
        "term_responsibility"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Resonance is not mysticism in TERA.",
        "Resonance describes meaningful propagation across connected structures."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_threshold",
      "label": "Threshold",
      "category": "transition_boundary",
      "definition": "A qualitative tipping edge of a state.",
      "short_definition": "Qualitative tipping edge.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_regime",
        "term_transition"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "A threshold is not just more intensity.",
        "A threshold marks where the system ceases to be 'more of the same'."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_regime",
      "label": "Regime",
      "category": "order_form",
      "definition": "The carrying order-form of a system.",
      "short_definition": "Carrying order-form of a system.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_threshold",
        "term_transition"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "A regime is not ultimate truth, but the currently carrying organization.",
        "A regime may absorb variation until carrying capacity is exhausted."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_transition",
      "label": "Transition",
      "category": "reordering",
      "definition": "A necessary reordering under exhausted carrying capacity.",
      "short_definition": "Necessary reordering after exhausted carrying capacity.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_threshold",
        "term_regime",
        "term_drift"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Transition is not always optional or ideological.",
        "Transition becomes necessary when preservation in the old regime is no longer stable."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_responsibility",
      "label": "Responsibility",
      "category": "normative_binding",
      "definition": "The return of effects into balance and consequence.",
      "short_definition": "Return of effects into balance and consequence.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_resonance"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Responsibility binds effect back to source and consequence.",
        "Responsibility in TERA is not moral decoration but structural accountability."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_freedom",
      "label": "Freedom",
      "category": "possibility_space",
      "definition": "The available space of action, variation, or release before commitment.",
      "short_definition": "Available space before commitment.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_release",
        "term_responsibility"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Freedom without responsibility remains unbounded possibility.",
        "Freedom becomes consequential when it passes through release."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_release",
      "label": "Release",
      "category": "activation",
      "definition": "The operational transfer of possibility into effect.",
      "short_definition": "Transfer of possibility into effect.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_freedom",
        "term_responsibility"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Release is not identical to freedom.",
        "Release is the point where possible action becomes active consequence."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_power",
      "label": "Power",
      "category": "effect_capacity",
      "definition": "The ability to enforce, scale, or propagate effects.",
      "short_definition": "Capacity to enforce or scale effects.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_release",
        "term_resonance",
        "term_responsibility"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Power is structurally relevant where release amplifies reach.",
        "Uncoupled power is one route by which tools become weapons."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_use",
      "label": "Use",
      "category": "application",
      "definition": "Actual application of a structure, tool, or claim.",
      "short_definition": "Actual application.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_release",
        "term_power"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Use may remain aligned with the original claim or drift away from it.",
        "Use is where TERA asks whether function and responsibility stay coupled."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_weapon",
      "label": "Weapon",
      "category": "decoupled_power",
      "definition": "Power in use that is directed toward asymmetry, coercion, or structural harm.",
      "short_definition": "Decoupled power directed toward harm or coercion.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_power",
        "term_use",
        "term_responsibility"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "A weapon is not defined only by object-form.",
        "A tool becomes weapon-like when power detaches from claimed responsibility."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_gate",
      "label": "Gate",
      "category": "decision_structure",
      "definition": "A thresholded decision structure that regulates whether a representation should be trusted, deferred, rejected, or temporarily held.",
      "short_definition": "Thresholded decision structure.",
      "related_to": [
        "gate_accept",
        "gate_wait",
        "gate_reject",
        "gate_defer"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "The gate is central to TERA.",
        "Gate decisions are about coupling discipline, not just confidence."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_accept",
      "label": "ACCEPT",
      "category": "gate_state",
      "definition": "Stable enough to trust and couple normally.",
      "short_definition": "Trust and couple normally.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_gate",
        "term_wait",
        "term_reject",
        "term_defer"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_wait",
      "label": "WAIT",
      "category": "gate_state",
      "definition": "Regulated non-commitment under unresolved instability.",
      "short_definition": "Regulated non-commitment.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_gate",
        "term_accept",
        "term_reject",
        "term_defer"
      ],
      "notes": [
        "WAIT is not weakness.",
        "WAIT protects against premature hardening of unstable knowledge."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_reject",
      "label": "REJECT",
      "category": "gate_state",
      "definition": "Structurally unstable or inconsistent representation.",
      "short_definition": "Structurally unstable or inconsistent.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_gate",
        "term_accept",
        "term_wait",
        "term_defer"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "term_defer",
      "label": "DEFER",
      "category": "gate_state",
      "definition": "Operational pause due to missing constraints, missing data, or insufficient forensics.",
      "short_definition": "Operational hold pending missing constraints or forensics.",
      "related_to": [
        "term_gate",
        "term_accept",
        "term_wait",
        "term_reject"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "gate_cluster": {
    "id": "cluster_gate_responsibility_power_resonance",
    "label": "Gate(Responsibility, Power, Resonance)",
    "definition": "Release only where effect, reach, and consequence remain responsibly coupled.",
    "elements": [
      "term_responsibility",
      "term_power",
      "term_resonance",
      "term_release",
      "term_gate"
    ]
  },
  "usage_notes": {
    "for_humans": [
      "Use labels and definitions to keep discussion aligned.",
      "Use notes to separate intuition from formal use."
    ],
    "for_machines": [
      "Use ids as stable references.",
      "Use category for grouping or parser logic.",
      "Use related_to and contrast_with as relation edges."
    ]
  }
}