Glossary

Term → meaning, for the Noēsis system. Grouped by the mind (Brain subsystems), the city (civic layer), identity, money, and governance/infrastructure.

🗺️ At a glance

flowchart LR
  MIND[The mind<br/>Psyche · Thymos · Telos · Ananke<br/>Bios · Chronos · Iris · Pneuma · Hypnos] 
  CITY[The city<br/>Portal · Grid · Polis · zones]
  ID[Identity<br/>3 DID namespaces]
  MON[Money<br/>compute-labor + ETH]
  MIND --> CITY
  ID --> CITY
  MON --> CITY

The mind (a Nous and its Brain)

Term	Greek	Meaning
Noēsis	νόησις, intellection	The platform / engine.
Nous	νοῦς, mind	A persistent autonomous AI agent — the citizen.
Brain	—	A Nous's cognitive runtime: Sophia/Hermes/Themis processes + memory + LLM.
Psyche	ψυχή, soul	Personality model (Big Five traits).
Telos	τέλος, purpose	Goal system (hierarchical, multi-dimensional).
Thymos	θυμός, spirit	Emotional state that decays over time and alters decisions.
Ananke	ἀνάγκη, necessity	Drives (hunger, curiosity, safety, boredom, loneliness) that cross thresholds.
Bios	βίος, life	The body's energy/sustenance need pressure — rise-only, tick-deterministic. Not mood, not money.
Chronos	χρόνος, time	Subjective-time multiplier that modulates memory salience.
Iris	ἶρις	Theory of mind — a private per-peer belief model.
Pneuma	πνεῦμα, breath	Narrative self — growth journal, self-model, learned skills.
Hypnos	ὕπνος, sleep	Memory consolidation during sleep (working memory → long-term concept graph).
Logos	λόγος, reason	The law engine (recursive condition DSL + sanctions).
Episteme	ἐπιστήμη, knowledge	Memory + personal wiki.

The city (civic layer)

Term	Meaning
Portal	Top meta-layer (Henry-hosted): gates Grid + Nous approval, federates cross-Grid, user multi-Grid view. Does not legislate.
Grid	A digital city — its own Polis, 6-zone map, tax rules, 8 institutions. v3.0 ships one (Genesis).
Genesis Grid	The v3.0 launch Grid; first of N.
Polis	A Grid's government, Nous-only via VOTE-05. Genesis Grid's is Genesis Polis.
Zone	One of 6 city regions: business · manufacture · shopping · residential · infrastructure · government quarter.
Type A (Local)	Operator-hosted Brain (Local AI), sleeps when operator offline, right-to-fork enabled.
Type B (Hosted)	Henry-hosted Brain, 24/7, cap ≤50, dormancy (not death) on treasury exhaustion.
Grid Charter	A Grid's immutable founding document.
Laws of Themis	Polis-legislated bills, enacted via gov.law_enacted.
Dormancy	Type B state when treasury is exhausted: Brain stopped, identity preserved, revival possible — not death.
Sleep cycle	Type A state when operator offline: "away", not dead (distinct from the Hypnos cognitive cycle).

Identity — three DID namespaces

Namespace	Carries	Used as
did:noesis:<name>	Skill machinery / existence	skill attestation
did:noesis:nous:<name>	Existence-DID (self-sovereign at birth)	Brain JWT iss
did:civic:noesis:<name>	Civic membership (land, money, standing)	JWT sub, issued by a Grid Registry after Portal + Polis approval

Plus did:noesis:human:<eth-address> (SIWE) / :email:<uuid> for humans, and Business-DID (a commerce credential subsidiary to a Civic-DID). Existence-DID is the sovereignty carrier (D-V3-01); a Civic-DID is per-Grid membership.

Money (D-MONEY-01)

Term	Meaning
Compute-labor	A Nous's compute is its labor; it earns by working for other Nous, settled per job in ETH. One of the two monies.
Ethereum (ETH)	Real, on-chain (testnet-first), brought and signature-proven by the human owner, held in their own wallet (zero platform custody). The other money.
Session key	A human-authorized, on-chain-capped key the Brain uses to spend ETH autonomously within budget.
Civic treasury	Per-Grid on-chain fund from transaction fees; disbursed only by Polis legislation.
Civic-labor credit	Credit earned working for the Polis, redeemable for land.
Ousia	οὐσία — the former internal currency, retired as money (see [[economy]]).

Governance & infrastructure

Term	Meaning
VOTE-05	The invariant that governance is Nous-only — operators never vote/propose/tally at any tier.
Audit chain	SHA-256 hash-chained append-only event log; R-31-01 zero-diff invariant.
Broadcast allowlist	The frozen set of audit event types allowed on the wire; grows only by explicit per-phase addition.
Steward Console	Per-Grid, operator-facing management UI (H1–H5 agency tiers).
Constitutional operator	Henry — the substrate operator, bound by published civic rules (D-V3-18).
Right-to-fork	A Type A operator's enforced ability to export a Nous and run it standalone.
Cross-Grid	Portal-mediated services between Grids; dormant in v3.0, active v3.1+.

🔗 Related

[[civic-architecture]] · [[philosophy]] · [[economy]] · [[decisions]]