This document defines the canonical meaning of the identification, language, and semantic YAML front matter fields listed below. Semantic metadata records relations that cannot be regarded as ordinary properties of the named concept without losing their meaning.
Identification and Language
source_id
A mandatory unique identifier of a specific language version of a document, in UUID v4 format. The identifier is retained during ordinary editing, moving, or renaming. A new document, including a translation or copy of an existing document, receives a new source_id.
lang
A mandatory lowercase slug of the language of the document’s content, for example ru or en.
translation_id
A shared UUID v4 for the language versions of one work. The field is specified only when several linked language versions exist. Each version retains its own source_id; a single group cannot contain two documents with the same lang.
Semantic Metatags
relative_to: subject
The concept exists only in relation to a subject. This does not mean subjectivity in the sense of personal opinion or arbitrariness. Without a subject, the corresponding relation cannot be formulated in the same sense.
The tag refers specifically to the subject’s position, not to any system technically processing distinctions. AI may apply, combine, and present distinctions established by a subject, but such processing does not in itself make AI the source of a new distinction. Therefore, definiteness presented or recorded by AI retains its relation to the subject who established the distinction.
genesis
genesis is an optional, nonempty, ordered list of the subject’s operations essential to the origin of the form under consideration in the particular way it is presented. If an operational genealogy has not been established for a document, the field should be omitted; an empty list is not used.
The list may include not only operations forming the original concept, but also subsequent operations necessary for obtaining its particular semantic or ontological status. An operation is included only when the form under consideration cannot be obtained without it; operations present merely in its logical prehistory are not added automatically.
Each list item is an object and must contain a field named operation, specifying the operation’s name:
genesis:
- operation: collapse
An item may contain optional arguments specific to the operation. For example:
genesis:
- operation: holding
what: "the distinction between the program and the rest of the physical system"
The concise and expanded notations belong to the same architecture and differ only in their level of detail. The concise notation means that the operation’s participation has been established, but its arguments are not recorded in the metadata.
The order of items reflects the logical sequence of reconstructing the form, not necessarily the psychological or temporal sequence of the subject’s actions. An operation may occur more than once in the list if it participates in different stages of the form’s genesis.
The absence of an operation from the list does not assert that it did not participate in the form’s genesis at all. The absence of an optional argument likewise does not imply that the corresponding structure is absent from the operation itself: the metadata simply does not record that aspect.
The names, semantics, and permissible arguments of operations form a separate vocabulary and are not part of the general architecture of genesis. The operation field determines to which operation the additional arguments belong, but their final schemas are established separately through investigation of each operation. In particular, the what field in the example demonstrates a possible elaboration of the held distinction, but does not yet establish a mandatory or exhaustive contract for holding.
At the architectural level, only the following conditions are checked:
genesis, when present, is a nonempty list;- each list item is an object;
- each item contains a nonempty
operationfield; - repetition of the same
operationvalue is permitted.
Strict validation of operation names and their additional arguments is added as the vocabulary is established, without requiring any change to the format of genesis.
Vocabulary of genesis Operations
The vocabulary contains canonical definitions of operations already established and expands as new operations are discovered and investigated. The existence of a developing vocabulary does not make it closed, nor does it require defining every possible operation in advance.
Discovered but not yet approved operations are kept separately in the list of candidates. The presence of a name in that list does not make it an admissible value of operation in canonical metadata.
Logical Hierarchy of Operations
Distinction is primary: to hold or collapse a distinction, the subject must first draw it. Holding and collapse are located at the next logical level: they are two operations through which the subject’s relation to what has already been distinguished is realized.
distinction
└── the subject's relation to what has already been distinguished
├── holding
└── collapse
This is a hierarchy of logical dependence, not a hierarchy of varieties of distinction. Holding and collapse are not included in the definition of the initial act of distinction. For a distinction that has been drawn to persist for the subject as something definite, holding is necessary. Without it, the distinction may disappear. Disappearance in itself does not amount to collapse: collapse presupposes presenting what has been distinguished as a single form.
An operation denotes what the subject does with what has been distinguished; the subject’s relation denotes the significance that what has been distinguished has for their subsequent thinking. The relation is realized through operations, and operations that have been performed may change that relation. Holding is active and may continue throughout a line of reasoning: an operation is not necessarily reduced to a single change.
The scheme describes the fate of one particular distinction and does not exhaust the vocabulary of operations. Logical dependence also does not require automatically recording distinction before each holding or collapse in genesis: by the general rule, operations essential to the form under consideration are recorded, not their entire logical prehistory. The list format remains unchanged; the nesting of the scheme is not transferred into YAML.
Primary Operation: distinction
The subject’s primary operation, in which the distinction “this / not this” is established. Both sides are established in the act itself rather than supplied to it as ready-made objects.
The act of distinction itself does not yet ensure that what has been distinguished is preserved for the subject as something definite: holding is necessary for that.
The operation may subsequently be specified by describing what was distinguished from what, or between which things the distinction was drawn. A final argument schema for distinction has not yet been established.
Operations in Relation to What Has Already Been Distinguished
holding
The subject’s operation in which a distinction already drawn is preserved as something definite, through which it can itself involve the subject in further investigation and distinguishing. What has been distinguished continues to exist for the subject precisely as distinguished and retains the capacity to carry thinking further.
Holding is necessary so that the result of distinguishing does not disappear and can have meaning for the subject. It does not require investigation, obtaining new distinctions, or proving the distinction’s significance for further reasoning. Preserving what has been distinguished as something definite is already holding; this does not imply that the held form is unchanging or eternal.
A held distinction remains something to which the subject may return and with which something new may be related. Because of this, it may reveal an incompatibility with a familiar framework and carry the inquiry forward without a separate decision by the subject to begin it. Such productivity belongs to holding itself, but does not guarantee that a new distinction will arise or that investigation will continue in every case.
Further operations performed upon a held distinction differ in their content. Assigning meaning is described by the operation meaning_assignment, and drawing a new distinction by the operation distinction. Other actions require their own description and, if introduced into the vocabulary as independent operations, a separate name. Distinguishing these operations does not mean that each starts with a separate decision by the subject: the movement of thought may continue out of the held distinction itself.
Holding and collapse may concern different distinctions within a single sequence. During categorization, differences between individual forms may be collapsed into a common framework, and the resulting category may then be held as something definite and distinguishable from other categories. Holding in itself does not guarantee the possibility of revising that framework.
The operation may subsequently be specified by describing which distinction is held and in what form it is preserved as something definite. The final argument schema for holding has not yet been established.
collapse
The subject’s operation in which a distinction already drawn ceases to be held as independently significant, and what has been distinguished is presented as one form.
During categorization, the common form becomes the framework within which what has been distinguished is assigned a position. A category is understood broadly here: it may be a class, model, or explanatory scheme that begins to determine what has been distinguished. Clarifications are permitted within the framework, but the original distinction no longer has the power to call the framework itself into question.
The participation of what has been distinguished in a scheme does not in itself constitute collapse. A distinction may persist as independently definite, enter into relations with other things, and require changing the scheme itself. Independence means retaining that power, not the absence of relations. The boundary lies between incorporating a distinction into relations while preserving its independence, and subordinating a distinction to a framework that determines the admissible meaning of its further examination.
Collapse presupposes distinction, but does not require a preceding separate step of holding: the subject may collapse a distinction immediately after drawing it. The distinction may remain named, but cease to influence subsequent reasoning, for example when membership in a common category is regarded as sufficient grounds to close a question.
While the distinction remains collapsed, the line of further investigation for which it must remain operative is closed. This does not mean that all distinguishing ceases: the subject may continue making distinctions within the accepted common form or may later restore the collapsed distinction.
The general definition of the operation records what happened to the distinction and does not itself establish whether that step was justified. In the analysis of Flat Mind, a significant case is one where a distinction loses independent significance without the grounds for setting it aside being disclosed. Combining things while preserving the operative force of significant distinctions is not their collapse.
The operation may subsequently be specified by describing what was collapsed and into which form. The final argument schema for collapse has not yet been established.
Assigning Meaning: meaning_assignment
The subject’s operation in which a particular meaning or significance is assigned to something.
The operation may be specified by indicating what is assigned meaning, what meaning is established, and in relation to which form, goal, or other foundation it is established. The final argument schema for meaning_assignment has not yet been established.
