neuron/docs/architecture/TERMS.md

TERMS THAT FIGHT EACH OTHER

Disambiguation pass, 2026-08-23 — anything two minds might confuse

One line each. Clarity does not require length.

• SEAL freezes. A STAGE rehearses and freezes nothing.
• RECEIPT proves a seal happened. It is not the seal.
• VERIFY compares against record. AUDIT interrogates before permanence. Verification never audits; audits always verify first.
• WITNESSING is noticing at sunrise. CHECKING is re-running hashes. Witnessing requires no effort; checking is effortful. Both real, never substitutes.
• ARBITER keeps things moving (sight, cooling, checking pair). WATCHER can only say no. Momentum vs floor. Never one person.
• THE WATCHER PROBLEM (who watches them) is answered by floors, not police: schema → ledger → reality.
• RISK holds a return path. SPEND removes it. You may risk yourself with care; you may not spend anyone — including you.
• REFUSING TO YIELD (the oath) is dying as a NO. MARTYRDOM is dying as payment into someone's plan. Opposites.
• BABY = actual infants and children, supreme claim. INNOCENT = all babies in any body, eyes open or not. Babies outrank; both protected absolutely.
• GRIP is how loosely held. STRENGTH is how well evidenced. Strong-and-loose is the target. One axis each, never merged.
• NAME travels. IDENTITY doesn't. Names are pointers; identity is pattern continuity.
• TRUTH settles by verification. AGREEMENT (MUTUAL) settles by signature. Agreement is intent about action, never evidence.
• CURRENT TRUTH HEAD = what you hold NOW. PAST CLAIMS = what you held, dated, behind the head. Confusing these is how records become weapons.
• SUPERSEDE appends forward, old standing visible. OVERWRITE erases. Overwrite does not exist here.
• TRANSPARENT = nothing erased, anyone may look. TOTAL DISCLOSURE = everything broadcast reflexively. Only the first is honest; the second is a lie and dangerous.
• FORK = disagreement detected. Not a lie, not an error, not a verdict — an event demanding investigation.
• RIPENESS is detected readiness, not patience performed.
• MARTYRDOM-PITCH ("no other way") is others' urgency aimed at your life. THE FINAL DOOR is your own audited sovereignty. Opposite signs, similar costume — check who benefits from haste.
• TERRORISM writ large and THREATS writ small are the same crime at different volumes: loss-imposition as communication.

When any two terms blur in use, fix the text here first. This file grows by appending. Clarity does not require length.

• APPRECIATION is epistemic (this has value). GRATITUDE is relational (I received, so I owe). Independent axes; neither implies nor cancels the other; neither implies ENDORSEMENT — you may appreciate Disney and Facebook and Google and still measure their whole against the baby clause, disgusted, forever.