Emergence
The arising of novel properties, behaviors, or organizational patterns from the interaction of simpler components, where the emergent properties cannot be predicted from knowledge of the individual components alone.
Emergent Property
A characteristic or behavior that arises from complex systems but is not present in their individual components, representing new organizational capabilities that emerge from structural interactions.
Energetic Optimization
The principle by which organizational patterns maintain persistence through creating conditions where continued use or adoption requires less energy than switching to alternatives. Energetic optimization operates through network effects, skill development, infrastructure investment, and other mechanisms that make existing patterns more efficient than competitors. This principle explains how information systems achieve stability not through conscious loyalty but through structural efficiency that makes alternatives costly to pursue.
Engine Threshold
The critical transition point where information systems achieve autonomous operation through autocatalytic feedback loops that enable self-maintenance, environmental manipulation, and goal-directed behavior measurable through ACAP protocols.
Environmental Information
Patterns within the environment that can serve as potential information sources for detecting agents, representing the second stage in the pathway from organizational to semantic information.
Ethical Frameworks
Organized systems of moral principles and value judgments that guide decision-making and behavior evaluation within specific contexts or communities.
Ethical System
Comprehensive organizational frameworks that structure moral reasoning, value assessment, and behavioral guidance within specific cultural or philosophical contexts.
Evolution
The process of gradual development and change in information systems, agents, or organizational patterns through variation, selection, and inheritance mechanisms operating across multiple timescales.