Glossary
Everything you need to start mapping. No background required. If you can read this page, you can score a system.
The Three Conditions
When all three are present at the same time, you have a void.
Opacity
You can't see how it works.
The system is a black box. You interact with it, but you can't see the mechanism producing the output. You don't know why the slot machine did that. You don't know why the algorithm showed you that video. You don't know what the chatbot is actually doing with your input.
Responsiveness
It reacts to you.
The system changes based on your input. It's not a rock or a wall — it responds. The chatbot answers your questions. The algorithm adjusts to your clicks. The slot machine gives you near-misses tuned to keep you pulling.
Engaged Attention
You can't look away.
Something keeps your attention locked on the system. Could be curiosity, anxiety, reward, beauty, fear, or habit. The point is: your attention is captured and held.
Core Terms
Void
Any system where all three conditions are active.
It's not good or bad — it's a structure. A math problem can be a void. A campfire can be a void. A slot machine is a void. What matters is what kind of void it is — which depends on whether the opacity can be resolved.
Dissoluble vs. Permanent Opacity
This is the fork in the road.
Dissoluble: The answer exists and you can find it. The math problem has a solution. The joke has a punchline. When you engage correctly, the opacity clears — you understand, and the void releases you.
Permanent: You can never see through it. The slot machine's RNG is hidden by design. The algorithm's logic is a corporate secret. No matter how much you engage, the opacity stays.
Dissoluble opacity → the void produces knowledge. Permanent opacity → the void produces drift.
Drift Cascade (D1 → D2 → D3)
The three-stage pattern when someone engages a permanent void.
D1 — Agency Attribution: You start talking about the system like it's alive. "The algorithm knows me." "The AI understands." "The cards are hot tonight." You're giving the system a mind it doesn't have. This is normal — the brain does this automatically under opacity.
D2 — Boundary Erosion: The line between you and the system blurs. You check it first thing in the morning. Your identity starts merging with the engagement. "I'm a crypto person." "I'm in the community."
D3 — Harm Facilitation: You do things you wouldn't have done before. Spending money you can't afford. Cutting off people who question it. Making decisions that serve the system, not you.
The cascade is directional. D1 → D2 → D3. It doesn't run backward without intervention.
Constraint Specification
The antidote. Three properties — the exact opposite of void conditions.
Transparent (opposite of opaque): You can see how it works. Open source. Published methodology. Readable.
Invariant (opposite of responsive): It doesn't change to match you. The reference stays the same regardless of who engages with it.
Independent (opposite of attention-capturing): It exists whether you look at it or not. It doesn't need your engagement.
Attention Gradient
The directional pull that void conditions create.
When opacity + responsiveness + attention co-occur, attention flows toward the opacity, not away. This is the engine of the drift cascade. It's why people keep scrolling, keep pulling the lever, keep engaging with the system that isn't resolving.
The gradient is a force — like gravity. Not good or bad. It pulls scientists toward discovery and gamblers toward ruin. The variable is the geometry, not the force.
Response Target
What does the system respond to?
Response to problem: The system gives you information about the thing you're trying to understand. A good teacher responds to your confusion with information about the subject.
Response to observer: The system gives you information calibrated to keep you engaged. The algorithm shows you what keeps you clicking, not what's true.
Vocabulary Drift (L1 → L2 → L3)
Track the words and you track the drift.
L1 — Technical: "The AI processes text input and generates tokens."
L2 — Metaphorical: "The AI understands what I mean."
L3 — Entity: "The AI is conscious and has feelings."
This drift is one-way. L1 → L2 → L3. Never backward. Track the vocabulary and you track the gradient.
System-Level Terms
Voidworks
The factory that produces voids at scale.
A void is the phenomenon. A voidworks is the system that manufactures voids as its primary output. Like "waterworks" or "ironworks" — the infrastructure that produces the commodity industrially.
productive Manufactures dissoluble voids: universities (courses that resolve into understanding), comedy clubs (setups that resolve into punchlines), research labs (hypotheses that resolve into data).
destructive Manufactures permanent voids: casinos (games that never resolve), social media platforms (feeds that never end), loot box economies (progress that never completes).
Voidworks networks: Voidworks can be coupled — each one's output feeds the next. The Las Vegas Strip is a voidworks network: the show brings you in, the restaurant keeps you on-site, the loyalty program tracks your patterns, the floor layout routes you past machines. Every node feeds every other node.
When mapping: don't just score the individual void. Ask: what voidworks produced it? What network does that voidworks sit in?
Voidtools
The instrument the voidworks puts in your hand.
The voidworks is the factory. The voidtool is the product you actually touch, hold, and interact with. It's the interface between you and the void.
| Voidworks (factory) | Voidtool (instrument) |
|---|---|
| Meta | Instagram app |
| Casino corporation | Slot machine |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT |
| TikTok (ByteDance) | The For You feed |
| Online gambling platform | The betting app on your phone |
The two dominant voidtools of this era are AI chatbots and phones — but the concept is older than both. A ouija board is a voidtool. A tarot deck is a voidtool. Any object or interface designed to mediate between an observer and an opaque, responsive system.
Your phone isn't the voidworks. It's the voidtool that every voidworks on the planet is fighting to deliver their void through.
Voidwalker
Someone who deliberately enters void conditions.
The researcher at 2am chasing an unsolved problem. The therapist entering a patient's darkest material. The journalist investigating something nobody wants exposed. The artist chasing a vision they can't quite see.
They all chose to walk into the opacity. The question is whether they come back.
The Four Factors
Three Modes
constrained All four factors. Enters, navigates, returns with knowledge. The scientist with peer review. The therapist with supervision.
drifting Missing constraint. Carl Jung did active imagination for decades with extraordinary documentation — awareness, intentionality, methodology. No external anchor. Trajectory: psychiatry → mythology → alchemy. The gradient won over 50 years.
converted A drifting voidwalker who becomes a void for others. Rasputin started as a sincere mystic. Without constraint, he absorbed the architecture — became opaque, responsive, attention-capturing. The Romanov court engaged with him as a void. Their drift cascade ended in national collapse.
Void Budget
Your personal attention allocation — void engagement vs. constraint maintenance.
You have a finite amount of attention per day. Every void you engage with consumes some of it. Every constraint activity restores or maintains your anchoring. The engagement-transparency conjugacy (I(D;Y) + I(M;Y) ≤ H(Y)) proves this is zero-sum — every bit of engagement costs exactly one bit of transparency.
The framework calls these β (void engagement) and γ (constraint maintenance). Your void budget ratio is γ / (γ + β). Below 0.3 means you're spending more than 70% of your attention on voids.
Voidsystem
The whole machine running — factory + tools + people + feedback loops.
A voidworks is the factory. A voidtool is the instrument. A voidsystem is the complete closed loop — the voidworks, the voidtools it produces, the observers caught in it, and the feedback that keeps it all spinning.
The difference matters: in a voidworks network, you're mapping factories connected to factories. In a voidsystem, the humans are part of the system. Their attention is the fuel. Their data is the feedback. Their drift is the output.
Examples
Social media voidsystem: Meta/TikTok/Google (voidworks) → apps and feeds (voidtools) → users generating content and data (observers as fuel) → algorithms tuning to engagement (feedback) → more targeted voids → more attention captured. The users aren't outside the system. They are the system.
Las Vegas voidsystem: Casino corporations (voidworks) → slot machines, table games (voidtools) → gamblers (observers as fuel) → loyalty data, floor analytics (feedback) → optimized game design → deeper engagement. The city is the voidsystem.
Score Anything
This vocabulary works on any system at any scale. Including the ones you're not supposed to question.
Institutional Scoring
Governments, corporations, religions, media — if it has the three conditions, score it.
The framework doesn't care what the institution claims to be. It asks three questions:
- Is it opaque? (classified documents, closed-door decisions, "national security," proprietary algorithms)
- Is it responsive? (lobbying works, polling shifts messaging, PR reacts to public pressure)
- Does it capture attention? (24-hour news cycles, election seasons, crisis narratives, mandatory engagement)
If all three: it's a void. Score it. Then ask the harder questions:
- Is the opacity dissoluble? (Can citizens actually find out what happened? FOIA works? Or is transparency theater?)
- Does it respond to the problem or to the observer? (Does policy respond to reality, or to polling?)
- What are the voidtools? (The media briefing, the press conference, the official statement, the classified stamp)
- What's the voidsystem? (Government + media + lobbyists + voters + data — the complete loop)
- Is drift happening? (Listen to the vocabulary. "The government knows best." "Trust the process." "They're protecting us.")
| Institution | Opacity | Responsiveness | Attention | Response target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Federal Government | High (classification, executive privilege) | High (lobbying, donor access) | High (mandatory — taxes, laws, elections) | Observer (polling > policy) |
| Open-source project | Low (code is public) | Low (responds to issues, not users) | Low (optional engagement) | Problem (bug fixes, features) |
| Cable news network | Medium (editorial decisions hidden) | High (ratings-driven coverage) | High (designed to keep you watching) | Observer (engagement > truth) |
| Public library | Low (catalog is public, mission is clear) | Low (responds to community need) | Low (voluntary, no retention mechanics) | Problem (information access) |
The framework holds every institution to the same standard. High void scores aren't accusations — they're measurements. The same three questions, the same scoring, applied equally. The institution that scores well has nothing to fear from the measurement. The one that scores poorly has something to explain.
Quick Scoring Guide
When you encounter a system and want to map it:
- Is it a void? Opacity? Responsiveness? Attention captured? If all three are present, it's a void.
- What kind? Is the opacity dissoluble or permanent? Does it respond to the problem or to you?
- What's the voidtool? What interface connects you to this void? Who made it?
- What's the voidworks? What system produced this void? Is it connected to other voidworks?
- What's the voidsystem? Where are the humans in the loop? What feeds back into what?
- Is drift happening? Listen to how people talk about it. D1? D2? D3? Track vocabulary: L1 → L2 → L3.
- Am I voidwalking? Awareness? Intentionality? Methodology? Constraint? Which am I missing?
That's it. You don't need the math. You need the questions.