Mechanics, Edge Conditions
Operational States That Do Not Create Authority
This paper does not introduce new structures, permissions, or exceptions. It names operational conditions that exist in the world and describes how the already-defined mechanics hold when those conditions are present.
Nothing here alters sequence, adds discretion, or grants authority. These are not special cases. They are operations of the system as it exists.
Edge conditions are not handled differently. They are handled without interpretation.
I. Human Edge Conditions
1. Personal Digital Information (PDI)
Personal Digital Information is information that originates in, is derived from, or is attributable to a person. PDI does not enter the system by default and is not assumed to be available, transferable, or usable absent legitimacy.
PDI is not a system component. It is the subject of legitimacy.
Mechanics do not evaluate PDI. They constrain what may act upon it.
When legitimacy clears, PDI may be engaged under declared scope. When legitimacy does not clear, PDI does not move.
No value, urgency, or outcome alters this sequence.
2. Conditional Bundling
Conditional bundling refers to the composition of multiple permissions, licenses, or declared purposes into a single proposed action.
Bundling does not create new legitimacy. Each component condition must independently clear. If any required condition fails, the bundle fails.
There is no partial clearance, weighting, or optimization.
Bundling is evaluated mechanically, not interpretively. It does not permit inference, substitution, or aggregation of standing.
3. Vessels
A vessel is a voluntary act by which a person offers their own PDI for a declared purpose, including pooled, delegated, or endowment-like use.
Vessels do not transfer authority. They do not suspend refusal. They do not convert contribution into obligation.
A vessel exists only within cleared legitimacy and under declared scope. Withdrawal of the vessel restores absence without penalty.
Mechanics do not distinguish between individual engagement and vessel-based engagement. Both are subject to the same sequence and constraints.
4. Lost or Unverifiable Identity
Loss or absence of identity does not create substitute authority.
Where identity cannot be verified, legitimacy cannot clear. Where legitimacy cannot clear, action does not bind.
No surrogate standing, inferred consent, or administrative substitution is permitted.
Absence remains a stable state.
5. Wards of the State and Guardianship
Guardianship and ward status do not transfer personal authority to systems.
Administrative care, custody, or representation does not create permission to engage PDI beyond what legitimacy allows.
Where lawful guardians act, they do so as administrators, not as sources of original authority.
Mechanics treat all engagement identically. Legitimacy must clear before consequence may attach.
6. Incarceration
Incarceration restricts liberty. It does not transfer authority over personhood or PDI.
Confinement does not create consent, availability, or standing.
Silence remains silence. Mechanics do not infer permission from custody.
7. Incapacity and Coma
Incapacity suspends expression, not authority.
Where a person cannot act, absence persists. No default engagement is created by incapacity.
Previously declared legitimacy remains valid only within its declared bounds. No new legitimacy may be inferred.
8. Minors
Minor status limits capacity to act. It does not create systemic authority over PDI.
Where guardians act, they do so only under declared scope and constraint.
In the absence of lawful guardian action, no engagement may occur.
Age does not authorize broader engagement, advance collection, or future use.
9. Death Without Representation
Death ends participation. It does not retroactively authorize use.
Absent declared posthumous authority, PDI remains unavailable.
No implied continuation, archival right, or derivative claim arises.
Where lawful representation exists, it operates under declared limits only.
10. Refusal, Silence, and Absence
Refusal does not degrade under edge conditions. Silence does not become signal. Absence does not become delay.
No edge state converts non-participation into obligation.
II. Institutional Runtime States
11. Consequence States and Reinstatement
Institutions that fail legitimacy do not enter an interpretive process. They enter a consequence state.
These states govern eligibility only. They do not grant authority, erase history, or alter past determinations.
There are three consequence states:
Mark
- Time-limited public visibility after serious non-terminal violation
- Signals elevated structural risk
- Does not accuse, moralize, or explain
- Propagates across shells, subsidiaries, and successors
- Expires automatically; memory remains
Scar
- Persistent public legibility for near-ban violations
- Does not expire
- Does not restrict participation by itself
- Permanently attaches to public record
Exclusion
- Terminal consequence state
- Removes eligibility to participate
- Does not erase artifacts or history
- Applied mechanically without intent or narrative
Three-Strikes Structure
- Strike One → Mark
- Strike Two → Scar
- Strike Three → Exclusion
There is no discretionary skipping, forgiveness, mitigation, or escalation outside this order.
Reinstatement
Reinstatement restores eligibility after exclusion.
- Occurs only after completed exclusion period
- Structural, not discretionary
- Cannot be appealed, accelerated, or negotiated
History remains. Eligibility may reappear. Authority remains fixed.
12. Mechanical Closure
Edge conditions do not introduce exceptions because the system does not reason about circumstance.
If legitimacy exists, action may proceed. If legitimacy does not exist, action does not bind.
No edge condition alters this.
Closing
Edge conditions do not require special handling because nothing here is special.
The system holds because it does not adapt to pressure, narrative, or hardship.
It holds because legitimacy must exist before action, and authority does not migrate.
These conditions are named so they cannot be exploited by omission.
The World does not make room for illegitimate action by sympathizing with circumstance. It makes illegitimate action impossible by refusing to move.
2026