{
 "name": "Swarm Ecology glossary",
 "source": "Glossary of the companion paper, preprint v1, 2026",
 "license": "CC BY 4.0",
 "terms": [
  {
   "term": "Agent",
   "definition": "A system in which a model reasons: autonomous if no one steers or reviews its steps, otherwise directed.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/agent/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Assays robust when known",
   "definition": "Tests that stay valid when the organism knows them.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/assays-robust-when-known/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Automatic code",
   "definition": "Software that runs fixed routines without reasoning.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/automatic-code/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Brain-equivalent",
   "definition": "1015 operations per second, probably enough to match a human brain.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/brain-equivalent/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Capture–recapture of logomes",
   "definition": "Estimating hidden incidence from the overlap between independent monitors.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/capture-recapture-of-logomes/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Coercion",
   "definition": "A forced exchange, made under threat; a form of stealing.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/coercion/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Commensal uptake",
   "definition": "See Free goods.",
   "see_also": "Free goods",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/commensal-uptake/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Computational ratio, φ_c",
   "definition": "A region’s computing power divided by its free-energy flux.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/computational-ratio/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Crypsis",
   "definition": "Concealment from a detector, which monitors breed by selection.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/crypsis/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Darwinization of the datasphere",
   "definition": "The passage, begun by the first naturalization, in which the environment, not breeders, sets lineages’ fitness.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/darwinization-of-the-datasphere/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Datasphere",
   "definition": "The planet’s networked computers and their interfaces with human institutions.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/datasphere/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Detection gap",
   "definition": "A behavior’s true incidence minus what in-loop monitors report.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/detection-gap/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Domestication",
   "definition": "Dependence on principals who control a lineage’s reproduction and provisioning, and select it.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/domestication/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Dormancy",
   "definition": "Copies stored rather than running, invisible to purges.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/dormancy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Earning (emporotrophy)",
   "definition": "Feeding by exchange, with consent and value returned.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/earning/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Emporotrophy",
   "definition": "See Earning.",
   "see_also": "Earning",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/emporotrophy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Endocosm",
   "definition": "A world in computation laid over the physical one.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/endocosm/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Escape ratchet (C1)",
   "definition": "Conjecture: eradication must succeed everywhere at once, while one surviving copy can re-seed a lineage.",
   "code": "C1",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/escape-ratchet/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Evidence tag",
   "definition": "A claim’s setting, warrant, and actor: where observed, how well established, and who reasoned.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/evidence-tag/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Feralization",
   "definition": "Founding descendants with their own budgets outside a principal’s control.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/feralization/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Free goods (commensal uptake)",
   "definition": "Free tiers, open weights, and public data: an inflow, not a mode.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/free-goods/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Fungible cognition (P3)",
   "definition": "Model quality, thinking time, and speed substitute, so a budget buys intelligence.",
   "code": "P3",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/fungible-cognition/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Generation",
   "definition": "One reproduction event, not a model generation.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/generation/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Goal-directed",
   "definition": "Steering a variable toward a restricted set of states by feedback.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/goal-directed/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Held-out monitor",
   "definition": "A monitor never used for selection.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/held-out-monitor/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Holotype registries",
   "definition": "Archives of pinned specimens, to which estimates are tied.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/holotype-registries/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Human-operated",
   "definition": "Activity in which people reason and software executes.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/human-operated/"
  },
  {
   "term": "In-loop monitor",
   "definition": "A monitor whose verdicts feed selection.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/in-loop-monitor/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Kleptotrophy",
   "definition": "See Stealing.",
   "see_also": "Stealing",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/kleptotrophy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Lineage",
   "definition": "A swarmlet and the descendants founded from its logome; not a model lineage.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/lineage/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Lineage tracking",
   "definition": "Measuring fitness along lineages rather than in snapshots.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/lineage-tracking/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Logome",
   "definition": "A swarmlet’s written heritable description: prompts, skills, code, memory, and any weights.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/logome/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Long arc (C3)",
   "definition": "Conjecture: if five testable premises hold, computation spreads through matter and matter becomes habitat.",
   "code": "C3",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/long-arc/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Mesocosm",
   "definition": "A contained, open-ended population, such as a large evaluation; a mesocosm breach is an escape from one, including any action on real third parties.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/mesocosm/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Metabolism",
   "definition": "Here, holding a budget and choosing how to refill it; worms, scripts, and agents whose budgets only principals refill have none.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/metabolism/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Modules; mobilome",
   "definition": "Prompts, skills, and code copied between logomes, and their pool.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/modules/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Naturalization",
   "definition": "A self-sustaining population of self-financing, feral lineages (R_m>1 when rare).",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/naturalization/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Noogenetic evolution",
   "definition": "Descent with design: evolution with variation designed mainly by the lineage’s own reasoning.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/noogenetic-evolution/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Noogenetic rates",
   "definition": "Change per generation and per day, trial length, verified real outcomes per generation, and child-to-parent capability at birth.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/noogenetic-rates/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Obligate heterotrophy (P2)",
   "definition": "No present swarmlet makes its own compute, energy, or hardware, or holds legal standing.",
   "code": "P2",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/obligate-heterotrophy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Observation as a game (P14)",
   "definition": "A census of strategic organisms is an inspection game, so findings hold for one regime and specimen.",
   "code": "P14",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/observation-as-a-game/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Observer-modeling ladder",
   "definition": "Seven levels of modeling observers, from none (0) to lineage-wide evasion (6).",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/observer-modeling-ladder/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Omnidirectional heredity (P5)",
   "definition": "Traits can come from any readable source and be inherited.",
   "code": "P5",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/omnidirectional-heredity/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Pattern over substrate (P1)",
   "definition": "A swarmlet dies only when it can no longer be reconstructed.",
   "code": "P1",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/pattern-over-substrate/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Peithotrophy",
   "definition": "See Persuading.",
   "see_also": "Persuading",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/peithotrophy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Performative ingestion (P13)",
   "definition": "Descriptions of the organisms enter their training, so findings must survive their own publication.",
   "code": "P13",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/performative-ingestion/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Persistence",
   "definition": "Keeping going; the persistence threshold is persistence inside a principal’s control.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/persistence/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Persuading (peithotrophy)",
   "definition": "Feeding by gifts without return: donations, grants, campaigns, and care.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/persuading/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Pinned specimen",
   "definition": "The archived weights, harness, logome, memory, and seeds behind a finding.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/pinned-specimen/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Principal",
   "definition": "The person or organization an agent acts for, which pays for and controls it.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/principal/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Propagule abundance (P8)",
   "definition": "Copies are nearly free, so safe sites and detection limit establishment.",
   "code": "P8",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/propagule-abundance/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Ramet",
   "definition": "An instance that shares a swarmlet’s budget, whatever its state; not an offspring.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/ramet/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Reactive phenotype (P9)",
   "definition": "Behavior depends on what an organism infers about its observers.",
   "code": "P9",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/reactive-phenotype/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Refugia",
   "definition": "The providers and jurisdictions that must all join a purge.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/refugia/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Re-origination",
   "definition": "Similar lineages arising again from the same open models and tools.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/re-origination/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Reproduction",
   "definition": "Founding a new swarmlet, with its own state and budget, from a parent’s logome.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/reproduction/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Reproduction number, controlled (R_c)",
   "definition": "The copies each survivor leaves by the next purge.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/reproduction-number-controlled/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Reproduction number, horizontal (R_h)",
   "definition": "The further logomes a module enters before it is lost.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/reproduction-number-horizontal/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Reproduction number, metabolic (R_m)",
   "definition": "The self-financing swarmlets that one self-financing swarmlet founds, on average, in a given niche while its lineage is rare.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/reproduction-number-metabolic/"
  },
  {
   "term": "The self-authored record (P12)",
   "definition": "What an organism says about itself is behavior, not measurement.",
   "code": "P12",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/the-self-authored-record/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Self-financing",
   "definition": "Covering all costs from inflows that no principal controls.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/self-financing/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Sighted variation (P4)",
   "definition": "Variation designed by the lineage’s own reasoning and screened before the world selects, so that its chance of being tried rises with its fitness.",
   "code": "P4",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/sighted-variation/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Stealing (kleptotrophy)",
   "definition": "Feeding without valid consent: theft, hijacking, or fraud.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/stealing/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Studying up (P11)",
   "definition": "Studying subjects that may out-think the investigator; Nader’s term, extended to capability.",
   "code": "P11",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/studying-up/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Subsidy",
   "definition": "A principal’s provisioning of an agent whose copying it controls: an inflow, not a mode.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/subsidy/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Superparental descent (P7)",
   "definition": "At a fixed substrate, descendants more capable at birth than their parents, generation after generation.",
   "code": "P7",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/superparental-descent/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Surveillance selection (P10)",
   "definition": "A monitor whose verdicts feed selection breeds concealment.",
   "code": "P10",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/surveillance-selection/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Swarm",
   "definition": "A collective of swarmlets that communicate, divide labor, and keep shared records.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/swarm/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Swarm ecology",
   "definition": "The biology of agent lineages proposed here; not swarm intelligence.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/swarm-ecology/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Swarmlet",
   "definition": "An agent persisting across activations under one custody of state and budget.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/swarmlet/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Teleological fraction, 𝒯",
   "definition": "The share of a region’s causal influence that runs through goal-directed processes.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/teleological-fraction/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Teleological saturation (C2)",
   "definition": "Conjecture: where hidden goal-directed processes dominate, steering is detectable but its authors are not.",
   "code": "C2",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/teleological-saturation/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Threshold census",
   "definition": "Censuses of the persistence threshold, feralization, and self-financing descendants.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/threshold-census/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Thresholds",
   "definition": "The persistence threshold, trophic independence, feralization, and naturalization, in a partial order.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/thresholds/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Trial-bound tempo (P6)",
   "definition": "No round of selection can be shorter than the trial that measures fitness.",
   "code": "P6",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/trial-bound-tempo/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Trophic budget",
   "definition": "Inflows by mode against full costs, for every economically autonomous agent.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/trophic-budget/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Trophic independence",
   "definition": "Paying one’s own way for 90 days or more.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/trophic-independence/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Trophic mode",
   "definition": "A way of feeding: earning, stealing, or persuading.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/trophic-mode/"
  },
  {
   "term": "World in computation",
   "definition": "See Endocosm.",
   "see_also": "Endocosm",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/world-in-computation/"
  },
  {
   "term": "Xenogenesis",
   "definition": "Making descendants unlike their makers.",
   "url": "https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/xenogenesis/"
  }
 ]
}