Coherent Dictionary of Simple English
173 terms defined within a logical framework. No ambiguity. No contradictions. No agenda.
A
Action
A change in the environment caused by an agent.
Agency
The capacity to initiate actions.
Agent
Something that can form intentions, make decisions, and initiate actions.
Agreement
A clear, voluntary meeting of minds where all sides understand and accept the terms for a proposed interaction that affects boundaries. Without agreement or permission, an action that crosses another'
Attention
The focusing of awareness on a particular thing while ignoring others. Attention selects what the mind processes most strongly at a given moment.
Authority
An agent or group claiming the right to tell others what to do or take what they own. Authority is just power asserted and has no moral force unless it comes from everyone's voluntary agreement.
Autonomy
The ability to form intentions and make decisions without external control.
Awareness
The recognition or detection of something by the mind -- internal (thinking, feeling) or external (objects, events). Awareness is being attentive to something that the mind can represent.
B
Behavior
A pattern of actions over time.
Belief
An idea an agent holds to be true, whether or not it matches reality. A belief becomes dangerous when treated as unquestionable instead of testable.
Benefit
Something an agent values and willingly accepts. If a 'benefit -- is forced on someone, it is not a benefit but harm.
Boundary
The limit beyond which others may not act without consent. Boundaries apply to bodies, property, and agreements.
Brand
A recognizable pattern of signals -- name, design, reputation -- that carries accumulated trust from consistent voluntary exchange. A brand's real value is not the pattern itself but the trust it repr
C
Capitalism
A system where people freely trade property, ideas, and labor without force or interference. It emerges naturally from infinite change and incentives, rewarding innovation and handling scarcity throug
Causation
The direct link between an action and its result. Without causation, blame is illogical.
Cause
A condition that produces an effect.
Choice
A decision made freely, without force, threats, or lies. Without choice, responsibility disappears.
Claim
A statement that something is true or belongs to someone. A claim is not truth until it matches reality and logic.
Civilization
The emergent layer of accumulated knowledge, refined tools, and persistent patterns that arise when individuals engage in voluntary exchange across time. Civilization is humanity's collective memory a
Civilizational Velocity
The speed at which a society turns cooperation, knowledge, and aligned incentives into life-preserving solutions before mortality overtakes progress. Velocity determines who lives and who dies in the
Coercion
External pressure that overrides or replaces an agent's intentions or decisions, such as taking what they own or forcing them to act without agreement. Coercion breaks the Golden Rule and creates vict
Collective
A group of individuals. A collective has no rights beyond the rights of its members.
Collective Punishment
Punishing a group for the actions of one or some of its members, regardless of individual guilt. Collective punishment always creates innocent victims and is therefore injustice.
Collective Responsibility
Holding people responsible for harm they did not cause, based only on their membership in a group. Collective responsibility breaks logic, because responsibility follows causation and individual actio
Communication
Transfer of information between agents via signals.
Competition
The natural process of individuals or groups striving to offer better value in trades. Competition drives improvement and efficiency without force, punishing errors through lost opportunities rather t
Consciousness
Recursive self-modeling within a pattern of change. Consciousness emerges when an agent's pattern becomes complex enough to represent itself and its relation to the surrounding flux. It is not a subst
Consent
Freely agreeing to something without pressure, deception, or manipulation. True trade and deals require consent from all sides; without it, actions become theft or harm, which must be repaired through
Consequence
What follows from an action. Just consequences are tied to harm actually caused, not to intention, status, or power.
Contract
A voluntary agreement that creates clear expectations about actions or outcomes.
Contract Breach
The failure to fulfill terms voluntarily agreed to in a Contract. A breach creates a victim -- the party who relied on the agreement and suffered damage from its violation. The breaching party owes Re
Control
The ability to direct something. Control over oneself is natural; control over others requires their consent or becomes coercion.
Crime
An action that harms someone who didn't want it, creating a victim. No victim means no crime -- simple logic from the Golden Rule. Only Justice -- the victim's sovereign choice of collection or releas
Currency
Money that is widely accepted. Its value comes from trust in the issuer's promise, not from the material it is made of.
D
Damage
Loss or harm to someone's body, property, or freedom that they did not agree to. Damage creates victims.
Deal
A voluntary agreement to exchange value. A deal is legitimate only when all sides consent and truth is upheld.
Debt
What is owed when an IOU is given. Honest debt is voluntary. Forced debt is coercion.
Decentralized Knowledge
The idea that no one person or group can know everything about what others need, want, or can do. People know their own lives best, so central plans (like in socialism) fail because they ignore this s
Deception
Communication designed to induce false belief or hide relevant truth so the receiver cannot consent properly. By causing an agent to act against their real interests, deception invalidates consent and
Decision
The commitment to act according to an intention.
Democracy
A group decision procedure where rules are chosen by voting. Vote cannot create consent; actions that violate boundaries still create victims even if supported by a majority.
Deterrence
The attempt to prevent harm by threatening punishment rather than responding to harm already done. Deterrence targets fear in potential offenders, not justice for actual victims, and becomes injustice
Duress
The condition of being under threat, force, or pressure that removes the ability to consent freely. An agent acting under duress is not choosing -- they are complying to avoid harm. Any agreement, con
E
Economy
The web of voluntary trades and productions among people handling scarcity. An economy thrives on free trade and incentives, failing when force (like regulations or taxes) distorts it by breaking cons
Effect
A change in the environment caused by an action.
Emergence
The process by which stable structures, laws, and relations arise as persistent patterns within infinite change. Nothing is imposed from outside; space, time, geometry, and physical constants are not
Evil
An action is evil if it creates harm to unwilling victims by overriding consent through force, threat, deception, or fraud. Evil consists in violating boundaries, externalizing costs onto others, or u
Enforcement
The use of force or threat of force to make rules obeyed. Enforcement is only justified to stop or repair real harm.
Error
A mismatch between a claim, belief, model, or prediction and reality. Error is not evil; refusing to correct it is.
Evidence
Information that increases or decreases the probability that a claim is true.
Exchange
A mutual giving between people. An exchange stops being real the moment force or deception enters.
Expression
The process of producing outputs, including actions, that convey ideas or information.
F
Faith
Holding a belief without sufficient evidence or despite contrary evidence. Faith can guide personal meaning but becomes dangerous when used to justify force, harm, or control over others.
Fallibility
The fact that all agents make mistakes and aren't perfect in smarts or goodness. Systems assuming agents are flawless need force to work, which breaks freedom and leads to harm.
Fear
An emotional response to the expectation of pain or damage. Fear guides avoidance of harm but becomes a tool of coercion when intentionally induced by threats or force.
Force
Physical compulsion or the credible threat of physical compulsion that overrides consent.
Forgiveness
A form of Justice in which the victim closes the moral debt by voluntary release. Forgiveness may extend to waiving any outstanding restitution. It is valid only when given freely by the actual victim
Fraud
Deception used to obtain value, control, or agreement the deceived agent would not have granted with full information.
Freedom
The absence of coercion in forming intentions, making decisions, or taking actions. Freedom is the right to act, trade, and own without interference, as long as no harm is done to others against their
Freedom of Speech
The freedom to express ideas without interference. Expression becomes harm only when it constitutes deception, threat, or fraud -- never when it merely causes discomfort, offence, or disagreement.
Free Communication
The voluntary exchange of information, thoughts, or ideas between agents. Communication requires consent, truthfulness, and freedom from force; without these, it becomes manipulation or coercion.
Free Trade
Exchanging goods, services, or ideas voluntarily, without harm, lies, or outside meddling. It's a core right; any block on it (like by politicians) erodes freedom and must be corrected, as per logic a
Free Will
Adaptive participation in navigable constraint. Free will is not exemption from causation but the capacity of an agent, as a self-reinforcing pattern within infinite change, to model its surroundings,
G
Golden Rule (Passive Version)
Do not do to others what they would not want done to them. This is the heart of fairness -- breaking it leads to punishment to restore balance, not to control.
Good
An action is good if it respects consent, does not create unwilling victims, and reduces or repairs harm. Good actions preserve or increase voluntary cooperation, trust, and the capacity of agents to
Good News
The achievable promise that civilization, under sustained voluntary cooperation, can deliver indefinite life extension to all who participate in building it. Good News is technical immortality bounded
Government
An organization claiming monopoly on force over a territory, using coercion like taxes or laws without full consent of those affected. Government violates the Golden Rule by creating victims through t
Guilt
The moral debt created by causing harm to another against their will. Guilt exists objectively from causation, not from feelings, accusation, or confession, and is erased only through Justice.
H
Harm
Unwanted damage to an agent, their body, property, or freedom. Harm creates victims and defines the boundary between freedom and crime.
Hierarchy
A structure where some claim power over others, often without consent. Hierarchies only become legitimate through voluntary agreement; forced ones breed coercion and error, as power ignores incentives
I
Idea
A formed thought about how something is, could be, or should be. Ideas can be shared, tested, improved, or rejected through logic and experience.
Ignorance
Lack of knowledge. Ignorance is normal and fixable through learning; pretending ignorance is knowledge causes harm.
Incentives
Rewards or penalties that guide what people do. Good systems use them naturally (like profit for hard work), while bad ones (like socialism) ignore them, leading to laziness or shortages.
Individual
A single thinking agent capable of choice, consent, and responsibility.
Infinite Change
The timeless, endless flow of the universe where everything transforms without stop. Infinite change is the ontological foundation -- nothing stays the same, and from this flux, logic, natural laws, a
Influence
A condition that increases or decreases the likelihood of an effect.
Innocence
The absence of guilt. An agent is innocent if they have not caused harm against another's will, regardless of suspicion, accusation, or feeling.
Innovation
The creation of new ideas, tools, or processes through trial, error, and learning. Innovation flourishes in freedom and free trade, where incentives reward risk and decentralized knowledge sparks prog
IOU
A promise to deliver value later. Only as good as the trust behind it. Breaking an IOU without cause is fraud.
Input
Information received from the environment.
Intellectual Property
Calling an idea "property" does not make it so. Property requires scarcity -- ideas can be shared without loss to the originator. Restricting others from using their own resources to reproduce a patte
Intention
A planned direction for action. Intention matters for understanding why an agent acted but does not erase harm already caused.
J
Justice
The victim's sovereign act of closing the moral debt created by harm. The debt may be closed by collection -- proportionately mirroring harm back to the offender (retribution) -- or by voluntary relea
K
Knowledge
Reliable understanding built from tested models that consistently match reality. Knowledge grows through prediction, error, and learning, not by declaration or force.
L
Law
Rules that emerge from logic and infinite change, not made by people in power. The Ultimate Law is the simplest: logic rules, follow the Golden Rule, punish to restore. All else is just explanation --
Learning
Updating thoughts, ideas, or models based on new information or failed predictions. Learning reduces error over time without needing force.
Legitimate
Morally valid because it follows logic, consent, and non-harm. Power alone never makes something legitimate.
Lesser Evil
An action that still causes harm to unwilling victims, but causes less total harm than the available alternatives under the same constraints. A lesser evil is not good, not justified, and not moral --
Liberty
The natural state of freedom where individuals act, own, and trade without harm or force from others. Liberty emerges from infinite change and logic, protected by the Golden Rule -- any erosion of it
License
A voluntary agreement in which the creator or owner of something grants another permission to use it under specified terms. A license is a form of Contract: it requires consent, clear terms, and hones
Lie / Lying
Saying something you know is false to trick someone. A lie harms voluntary trade and trust because it stops people from knowing what they're really agreeing to.
Logic
The ultimate, unchanging way of thinking that spots truth from false. It's the top law, born from infinite change, used to build fair rules without contradictions. Ignores feelings or power; just what
Love
A voluntary pattern of care, attention, and commitment toward another agent, grounded in freedom rather than obligation. It grows through chosen connection, honest communication, and mutual respect fo
M
Market
A space (physical or abstract) for voluntary trades where prices emerge from supply, demand, and scarcity. Markets handle infinite change by adjusting naturally, without need for authority or force. I
Market Dominance
A position earned when one provider is freely chosen because it offers better value. It remains legitimate only while choice is free and competitors are not blocked. When force or imposed rules are us
Mental
Relating to the mind rather than the body. Mental states include thoughts, feelings, awareness, and experiences like pain or fear.
Mind
The set of processes that produce thoughts, ideas, predictions, judgments, and perceptions. The mind is where mental activity occurs, including both conscious and unconscious processes.
Mind Virus
An idea or belief that spreads by exploiting cognitive shortcuts (fear, guilt, identity, authority, or zero-sum thinking) while resisting correction by logic, evidence, or lived experience. A mind vir
Model
A simplified idea of how something works, used to understand, explain, or predict it. A model is not reality; it is judged by how well its predictions match what actually happens.
Money
An IOU that can be traded. A promise of value.
Murder
The deliberate killing of an agent who did not consent to die. Murder is unique among harms: it destroys the only agent with sovereign power to close the moral debt it creates. The victim cannot colle
Monopoly
Exclusive control over a trade or resource, often enforced by authority rather than earned through better value. True monopolies violate free trade and create artificial scarcity, harming consumers wi
Morality
Doing right based on logic and not harming others unwillingly. No system is moral if it needs force without consent'like taking labor by 'need -- or votes. True morality respects reciprocity: treat ot
N
Negligence
Failing to take reasonable actions to avoid causing harm.
Nomocracy
Rule by law derived from logic and reciprocity, not by the will of rulers or groups. In a nomocracy, only rules that prevent or repair real harm are legitimate, and no agent or authority stands above
O
Obligation
A duty freely accepted by agreement. Obligations created by force are not real obligations.
Outlaw
An agent whose guilt cannot be closed because they destroyed the victim who held sovereign power over the debt -- typically through murder. The outlaw's claim to the Golden Rule's protection is forfei
Ownership
The relationship between an agent and their body, actions, or property acquired without harming others. Ownership gives exclusive control and makes others bound to respect it unless consent is given.
Output
Information or action sent into the environment.
P
Pain
An unpleasant physical or mental experience caused by damage or the threat of damage. Pain signals harm already happening or about to happen.
Pattern
A recurring, identifiable form within infinite change. Patterns are the bridge between raw flux and everything agents can observe, name, or use. Physical laws, constants, structures, and even agents t
People
A plural reference to agents, used when speaking of many individuals without implying collective identity, collective rights, or collective responsibility. People is shorthand; all rights, choices, an
Perception
The process of receiving and interpreting inputs as meaningful information.
Permission
Clear consent given before an action that affects someone else. Without permission, the action becomes harm.
Politician
Someone who seeks or holds public power (such as law-making or enforcement) through force or threat of force. Actions based on coercion are not moral under these definitions.
Power
The ability to make things happen. Power without consent is dangerous; power with consent becomes cooperation.
Prediction
A claim about what will happen based on a model or belief. Predictions are how models face reality; wrong predictions expose errors.
Price
The amount of value one agent gives to another in an exchange.
Privacy
Control over what others know about you. Privacy is a boundary. Crossing it without consent is harm. There is no expectation of privacy in public spaces or in private spaces belonging to others.
Process
A sequence of actions or changes that unfold over time. A process explains how something happens, not just what exists.
Production
Making something valuable from effort and resources. The source of all wealth. Without production, there is nothing to trade.
Profit
The positive value gained from a voluntary trade or innovation after accounting for costs and scarcity. Profit acts as an incentive, signaling success in meeting others -- wants without force; ignorin
Property
Things you own, starting with your body and extending to what you create or exchange. Stealing it is harm; you're the sole boss of it, as per natural rights from logic.
Punisher
An agent acting as proxy for a victim's Justice, using force to make an offender face consequences for harm they caused. A punisher's legitimacy derives from the victim's mandate and ends where that m
Punishment
The enforcement arm of Justice: the application of retribution or restitution as directed by the victim or their proxy. Only for real harms with real victims; its purpose is to close a moral debt, not
Q
Qualia
The subjective 'what it is like -- aspect of experience, such as how pain feels or how red looks. Qualia are real experiences but cannot be directly shared or measured from outside.
R
Reality
Everything that exists independently of belief or opinion.
Reason
The process of using evidence and logic to reach a conclusion.
Reciprocity
The fair back-and-forth: don't do what you wouldn't want done to you. Socialism fails this by forcing people to give up what they built without agreement.
Regulation
Rules imposed by authority using force or threats, often claiming to 'protect -- but ignoring decentralized knowledge and fallibility. Regulations distort free trade, create artificial scarcity, and h
Reputation
The pattern of expectations others form about an agent based on past voluntary actions. It is not owned or controlled by the agent; it is a belief held by others. A good reputation grows through consi
Responsibility
The connection between an action and the agent that caused its effects, carrying the obligation to fix or repay any harm done. Responsibility follows causation, not status or power.
Restitution
Returning stolen value or compensating for harm done. Restitution erases debt caused by wrongdoing.
Retribution
A form of Justice in which the victim, or a proxy acting on the victim's behalf, closes the moral debt by proportionately mirroring harm back to the offender. Retribution without a victim is injustice
Revenge
Harming someone to satisfy anger, resentment, or desire for payback, rather than to restore balance to a victim. Revenge is driven by emotion, not justice, and can exist even when no restitution or pr
Rights
Boundaries that protect an agent's ability to act without being harmed or controlled by others. Rights emerge from logic and the Golden Rule: an agent owns their body, actions, and property without ha
Right to Free Trade
The freedom to exchange goods, services, or ideas by mutual consent, without interference, as long as the exchange does not cause harm.
Risk
The chance that an action may lead to harm or loss.
S
Scarcity
The truth that resources are limited while wants are endless. Ignoring this leads to lies in systems like socialism, causing shortages and force. Logic demands we trade freely to handle it best.
Safety
The condition in which an agent's boundaries are not under credible threat of violation. Safety is the absence of credible harm, not the absence of risk, discomfort, disagreement, or uncertainty. Invo
Self-Awareness
The point at which consciousness recognizes its own pattern as distinct from the surrounding flux. Where consciousness is the process of recursive self-modeling, self-awareness is the result: the agen
Self-Ownership
The foundational right to control one's own body, mind, and actions without interference. From this emerges all property and freedom; denying it justifies slavery or coercion, violating the Golden Rul
Service
Value delivered through action rather than through a physical thing. A service is traded like any good: voluntarily, honestly, and without harm.
Signal
A pattern of inputs or outputs that carries information.
Socialism
A system that promises fairness but uses force to take and redistribute without consent. It ignores scarcity, incentives, and decentralized knowledge, always leading to control, lies, and collapse. Mo
Society
A network of individuals interacting voluntarily through trade, communication, and agreements. Society emerges bottom-up from infinite change, without needing force or central plans. Coercive 'societi
Software
A set of instructions, encoded as a pattern, that directs a machine's operations. Software is created through labor and intellect and has value through what it enables. Like all patterns, it can be co
Subconscious
Mental processes that influence thoughts, feelings, and actions without being in awareness. The subconscious handles patterns, habits, and learned responses outside focused attention.
System
A set of rules and actions working together. A system is judged by whether it creates voluntary cooperation or enforced harm.
T
Terms
The specific conditions or details of an agreement, deal, or trade. Terms must be clear, honest, and consented to voluntarily; hidden or forced terms invalidate the whole thing, turning it into decept
Theft
Taking what belongs to another without consent, whether by physical force, taxes, or seizures by claimed authority. No moral excuse like need, votes, or tradition makes it legitimate'logic calls it ha
Thought
A mental act of noticing, comparing, or reasoning about something. Thoughts are internal and can be true or false depending on whether they match reality and logic.
Threat
A promise of harm used to force compliance. A threat is already a form of violence.
Time
The perceived sequence of change, not a container in which change occurs. Only the present flux is real; past and future are models constructed by agents to predict and remember, not places that exist
Timeless Infinity
The endless, boundless nature of the universe's change, without beginning or end. From this emerges everything real, including logic and fair rules, showing why top-down controls can't last.
Trade
Voluntary swap of value between people. Must be free, honest, and without harm. Protecting it from erosion (like by politicians) is key to freedom; interference gets punished.
Trade Partner
Someone you interact with in a voluntary exchange. In trade, both partners aim to benefit; if one doesn't agree, there is no trade at all.
Trust
Confidence that others will not lie, steal, or use force. Trust is the foundation of cooperation and trade.
Truth
What matches reality, regardless of what anyone believes, wants, or votes for. Truth does not change to protect feelings or power; models and beliefs must change to match it.
Tyranny
The exercise of power without consent, where authority forces actions, takes property, or punishes without victims. Tyranny ignores infinite change, incentives, and fallibility, always collapsing into
U
Understanding
Grasping how ideas, facts, or processes connect and affect each other. Understanding explains why something works, not just that it works.
Universe
The whole of existence, built on infinite change as its base. No fixed ruler or plan -- just endless flow from which logic and natural laws self-emerge, guiding fair societies.
V
Value
What an agent considers important. Value cannot be measured from outside or imposed by others.
Victim
Someone harmed against their will. If none, no crime or need for punishment. This keeps laws simple and stops fake 'crimes -- like victimless trades.
Victimless
Describing an action that doesn't harm anyone who doesn't want it done to them. If no one is hurt unwillingly, then there is no victim and thus no crime.
Victimless Trade
An exchange between people where neither side is harmed or tricked, and both agree freely. Victimless trade is the purest form of economic cooperation.
Violation
Crossing a boundary where consent was required. All violations create victims.
Violence
The use or threat of force to cause harm against someone's will. Violence creates victims and is only justified to stop or repair harm already done.
Voluntaryism
The principle that all interactions must be based on consent, without coercion or force. It aligns with the Ultimate Law: free trade, no victim no crime, and reciprocity. Voluntaryism rejects authorit
W
War
Organized, sustained violence between groups where individual consent and victim identification are deliberately obscured or denied. War emerges when authority claims the right to force individuals to
Will
The internal drive that directs intentions and actions.
Wisdom
Using knowledge and understanding to choose actions that reduce harm and respect consent. Wisdom is applied judgment guided by logic, experience, and humility.
Z
Zero-Sum
A false belief that one agent's gain must be another's loss, ignoring how voluntary trade creates value for both sides. Zero-sum thinking fuels coercion (if I can't win unless you lose, force becomes