This glossary fixes terms required to read the work that precedes and follows. Terms appear in alphabetical order.
Orientation terms describe recurring structural failures observed in existing systems. They are diagnostic only.
Base terms describe conditions that exist prior to engagement. They are not altered downstream.
The point at which system constraints become operative for participating actors. Activation does not require universal adoption.
The use of procedural compliance in place of legitimate authority or jurisdiction.
The process by which legitimate actions are verified as eligible to proceed toward settlement. Actions that fail to clear do not reach settlement.
The operational condition that emerges when ambiguity collapses due to enforced boundaries. Clarity is an outcome, not a goal.
The distribution of value resulting from settled, legitimate use of Personal Digital Information. Compensation follows mechanically from settlement.
The voluntary aggregation of specific categories of Personal Digital Information under explicitly defined, revocable, and purpose-bound conditions.
The condition of persistence across time without requiring action, engagement, or justification.
The protected human condition that emerges when legitimacy, enforcement, and settlement constraints hold. Within the Courtyard, silence and refusal produce no exploitable signal.
The recognition that Personal Digital Information is not property or data, but the informational form of the person.
The structural prevention of illegitimate digital actions by denying access to execution, routing, or settlement.
Any action that creates contact, use, or consequence within a system. Absence of engagement is not engagement.
The governing structural constraint requiring legitimacy prior to execution, clearing, or settlement.
The terminal eligibility state in which an entity may no longer participate. Exclusion removes eligibility but does not erase records.
A post-sovereignty architecture in which systems respond to explicitly licensed expectations rather than inferring behavior from extracted data.
The enforcement event in which a digital action is blocked due to absent or violated legitimacy conditions.
A structural boundary that permits or blocks execution, routing, or settlement based on legitimacy.
The mechanisms that preserve structural constraints over time. Governance does not allocate permission or benefit.
The human-facing surface where permitted requests arrive and where engagement or refusal may occur.
The first lawful registration of a Personal Digital Information creation event, binding jurisdiction and conditions of use.
The condition in which tools or processes are treated as having authority independent of standing.
The condition in which an action produces consequence that cannot be undone by later consent or explanation.
Authority assigned at ingress that follows the person, not infrastructure or institutions.
The system of record preserving legitimacy states and their sequence.
The binary condition under which a digital action is permitted to occur. Determined prior to execution.
A digital action that satisfies legitimacy requirements at the moment it is attempted.
A time-limited public visibility state applied after a serious but non-terminal violation.
The persistence of legitimacy states once recorded, preventing retroactive reinterpretation.
The condition in which no interaction has occurred and no inference may be made.
A state in which some actors operate within system constraints while others do not.
A living human individual and the source of Personal Digital Information.
An AI system acting solely on a person’s instruction to negotiate licensing terms without processing PDI.
Any digital signal, behavior, pattern, representation, or derivative originating from a human being.
The discrete moment at which Personal Digital Information first comes into existence.
Voluntary collective structures where individuals pool specific categories of PDI for collective bargaining.
A voluntary, purpose-specific, time-limited, revocable authorization issued by the individual.
The condition of existing without action, declaration, or participation.
The condition of non-participation that does not expire through silence.
A binding condition asserting that all rights not explicitly licensed remain with the individual.
A persistent public legibility state applied to near-exclusion violations.
The pre-ingress detection layer determining whether Threshold evaluation is required.
The finalization and distribution of value resulting from legitimate digital action.
The point beyond which value becomes final and distributable.
The absence of action or declaration. Silence is not a signal.
Damage arising from action upon a person without cleared legitimacy.
The condition under which a system may produce consequence that binds a person.
Responsibility assigned based on system participation rather than intent.
The binary legitimacy boundary determining whether a proposed action may proceed.
The period during which participation expands due to operational advantage rather than obligation.
A digital action lacking legitimacy requirements. Unlicensed use does not clear.
The accounting process associating generated value with the PDI that enabled it.
Defined operational shells through which licensed activity may occur without conferring standing or jurisdiction.
A non-executing symbolic notation expressing eligibility and constraint without triggering computation.
A disclosure surface showing what entities require and offer after legitimacy clears.