Systematic Index
Catalog of 200 Concepts
A complete overview of the corpus across ten domains—from epistemology and systems theory, through AI architecture and political economy, to ethics and planetary ecology.
01 Epistemology 32 concepts
Limits of knowledge, causality, proof, and the architecture of scientific inquiry.
- #001 Applied Bayesianism applied Bayesianism — Updating beliefs in proportion to evidence
- #002 Epistemic humility epistemic humility — Awareness of the limits of one’s knowledge
- #003 Steelmanning steelmanning — Reconstructing an opponent’s argument in its strongest form
- #004 First principles thinking first principles thinking — Deconstructing problems down to foundational truths
- #005 Motivated reasoning motivated reasoning — Bending reasoning to protect a desired conclusion
- #006 Brandolini’s law Brandolini's law — Refuting bullshit requires orders of magnitude more effort than producing it
- #007 Illusion of explanatory depth illusion of explanatory depth — Mistaking familiarity with a phenomenon for understanding its mechanism
- #008 Survivorship bias survivorship bias — Drawing conclusions only from visible winners and survivors
- #009 The map is not the territory the map is not the territory — Models and descriptions are never identical to reality itself
- #010 Hanlon’s razor Hanlon's razor — Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence or error
- #011 Post-truth post-truth — When emotional appeal and identity outweigh objective facts in public life
- #012 Sensemaking sensemaking — Constructing shared meaning out of ambiguous and chaotic signals
- #013 Epistemic injustice epistemic injustice — Wronging someone specifically in their capacity as a knower
- #014 Epistemic violence epistemic violence — Silencing or dismantling marginalized systems of knowledge
- #015 Network epistemology network epistemology — How the structure of communication networks shapes collective belief and polarization
- #016 Metarationality meta-rationality — Knowing how to use, switch between, and step outside formal rational systems
- #017 Preference falsification preference falsification — Publicly expressing views that differ from one’s privately held preferences
- #018 Framing framing — How the presentation of an issue shapes its interpretation and choices
- #019 Chesterton’s fence Chesterton's fence — Do not tear down an institution before understanding why it was built
- #020 Falsifiability and the replication crisis falsifiability; replication crisis — Why scientific claims must be testable and repeatable
- #021 Epistemic bubbles vs. echo chambers epistemic bubbles vs. echo chambers — Passive omission of outside voices versus active distrust of outside sources
- #022 Legibility legibility — Administrative simplification of complex social and natural realities by the state
- #023 Context collapse context collapse — When a single message reaches multiple distinct audiences simultaneously
- #024 Information disorder information disorder — The analytical triad of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation
- #025 Prebunking prebunking — Psychological inoculation against manipulation before encountering falsehoods
- #026 Metascience metascience — Using scientific methods to study, audit, and reform science itself
- #027 Causal inference causal inference — Distinguishing genuine cause-and-effect relationships from mere correlation
- #028 Data provenance data provenance — Tracing the origin, lineage, and transformations of data
- #029 Disinformation disinformation — Intentional fabrication and spread of falsehoods to deceive or harm
- #030 Goodhart’s law Goodhart's law — When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
- #183 Thought style and thought collective Denkstil und Denkkollektiv — Scientific facts as products of a socially cultivated way of perceiving and working
- #191 Bullshit (indifference to truth) bullshit — Speech unconcerned with truth or falsity, aimed solely at impression and persuasion
02 Cognitive Science 10 concepts
Mind, attention, cognitive heuristics, and the entanglement of thought with its environment.
- #031 Free energy principle free energy principle — Self-organizing systems persist by minimizing surprise and variational free energy
- #032 Predictive processing predictive processing — The brain as a hierarchical engine continuously predicting sensory inputs
- #033 Extended mind extended mind — External tools reliably coupled with thought as literal parts of the cognitive system
- #034 Enactivism enactivism — Cognition and meaning emerging through embodied interaction with the environment
- #035 Metacognition metacognition — Monitoring, evaluating, and regulating one’s own thinking processes
- #036 Cognitive offloading cognitive offloading — Delegating memory and computation to external artifacts and bodily actions
- #037 Doomscrolling doomscrolling — Compulsive consumption of negative news in attention-maximizing feeds
- #038 Burnout burnout — Chronic occupational exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy
- #184 Tacit knowledge and Polanyi’s paradox tacit knowledge / Polanyi's paradox — We know more than we can tell or codify in explicit rules
- #199 Bounded rationality and dual-process thinking bounded rationality & dual-process theory (System 1 / System 2) — Decision-making under finite time and attention via fast heuristics and slow deliberation
03 Ontology 6 concepts
Categories of being, emergence, and levels of organization in matter and information.
- #039 Speculative realism speculative realism — Philosophical defense of a reality independent of human thought and correlation
- #040 Object-oriented ontology (OOO) object-oriented ontology — Objects as irreducible to either their components or their relations
- #041 Hyperobjects hyperobjects — Entities so massively distributed in time and space that they defy local perception
- #042 Agential realism agential realism — Phenomena and boundaries emerging through material-discursive intra-actions
- #043 Ontological turn ontological turn — Taking seriously the existence of multiple distinct worlds rather than mere worldviews
- #200 Umwelt and autopoiesis Umwelt & autopoiesis — An organism’s species-specific world of meaning and the self-production of living systems
04 Systems & Complexity 26 concepts
Feedback loops, network resilience, catastrophes, and the dynamics of complex systems.
- #044 Systems thinking systems thinking — Understanding wholes through feedback loops, delays, and interconnections
- #045 Emergence emergence — Macro-level properties and patterns that cannot be reduced to individual parts
- #046 Complexity science complexity science — The study of adaptive systems where local interactions generate global order
- #047 Antifragility antifragility — Systems that gain strength and capability from shocks, volatility, and stressors
- #048 Black Swan Black Swan — Rare, high-impact events that appear predictable only in hindsight
- #049 Polycrisis polycrisis — Multiple interlocking crises whose interaction amplifies total systemic harm
- #050 Metacrisis metacrisis — The underlying crisis of sensemaking, coordination, and values beneath global crises
- #051 Tragedy of the commons tragedy of the commons — Individual rationality leading to the depletion of a shared resource
- #052 Lindy effect Lindy effect — For non-perishable ideas and technologies, life expectancy grows with current age
- #053 Jevons paradox Jevons paradox — Efficiency gains in resource use leading to higher total consumption
- #054 Principal–agent problem principal–agent problem — Misaligned incentives and asymmetric information between delegator and executor
- #055 Path dependence path dependence — How early contingent choices lock in long-term institutional and technological trajectories
- #056 Second-order effects second-order effects — The indirect downstream consequences that follow the immediate result of an action
- #057 Externalities externalities — Costs or benefits imposed on third parties outside a market transaction
- #058 Moloch and coordination failure Moloch — Multipolar competition forcing all participants to sacrifice shared values
- #059 State capacity state capacity — The institutional ability of a state to implement policy and deliver public goods
- #060 Wicked problems wicked problems — Socially embedded problems with no definitive formulation or purely technical fix
- #061 Feedback loops feedback loop — Circular causal processes in which outputs return as inputs to amplify or stabilize change
- #062 Non-zero-sum games non-zero-sum games — Strategic interactions where cooperation can leave all participants better off
- #063 Network theory network science — Small worlds, scale-free hubs, and the topology of connected systems
- #064 Information theory information theory — Mathematical laws of entropy, compression, and reliable transmission across noisy channels
- #065 Climate tipping points climate tipping points — Critical thresholds beyond which Earth system changes become self-perpetuating
- #066 Supply chain resilience supply chain resilience — The capacity of production networks to absorb shocks and reorganize
- #189 Spontaneous order and dispersed knowledge spontaneous order and dispersed knowledge — Complex social order emerging without a central planner from locally held knowledge
- #190 Ergodicity and the ruin barrier ergodicity and barrier of ruin — Why the average across many parallel players diverges from one person’s path through time
- #193 Exit, voice, and loyalty exit, voice, and loyalty — The fundamental mechanisms of response to the decline of firms, states, and communities
05 Decisions & Economics 23 concepts
Game theory, mechanism design, information asymmetry, and institutions.
- #067 Probabilistic thinking probabilistic thinking — Reasoning in distributions and odds rather than deterministic certainties
- #068 Inversion inversion — Solving complex problems backward by identifying and avoiding modes of failure
- #069 Decision reversibility decision reversibility — Calibrating speed and caution by distinguishing one-way from two-way doors
- #070 Optionality optionality — Structures with capped downside and open-ended upside under uncertainty
- #071 Opportunity cost opportunity cost — The value of the best foregone alternative when making a choice
- #072 Incentives incentives — How reward and penalty structures shape individual and institutional behavior
- #073 Information asymmetry information asymmetry — Transactions in which one party possesses crucial knowledge the other lacks
- #074 Network effects network effects — Goods and platforms whose value to each user grows with total adoption
- #075 Creative destruction creative destruction — Capitalist innovation continuously dismantling established industries and routines
- #076 Skin in the game skin in the game — Bearing personal downside risk for decisions imposed on others
- #077 Rent-seeking rent-seeking — Capturing wealth through institutional privilege rather than new value creation
- #078 Nudge and behavioral economics nudge — Steering choices through choice architecture without forbidding options
- #079 Mechanism design mechanism design — Reverse game theory: engineering rules so self-interest yields desired social outcomes
- #080 Plurality Plurality — Technology designed for collaboration across social diversity and difference
- #081 ESG environmental, social and governance (ESG) — Evaluating corporate risk and impact across environmental, social, and governance dimensions
- #082 Geoeconomic fragmentation geoeconomic fragmentation — The fracturing of global trade, finance, and technology along geopolitical fault lines
- #083 Precautionary principle precautionary principle — Scientific uncertainty does not justify inaction in the face of irreversible harm
- #084 Industrial policy industrial policy — Strategic state intervention to steer capital and build key productive sectors
- #085 De-risking de-risking — Reducing strategic exposure to geopolitical rivals without full economic decoupling
- #086 Digital sovereignty digital sovereignty — Democratic and state control over critical digital infrastructure, data, and code
- #185 Soft budget constraint and shortage economy puha költségvetési korlát / soft budget constraint; hiánygazdaság / shortage economy — Erosion of financial discipline when an organization expects to be bailed out
- #186 The Great Transformation and fictitious commodities The Great Transformation / fictitious commodities — Labor, land, and money as fictitious commodities and society’s protective counter-movement
- #192 Weaponized interdependence weaponized interdependence — Turning central hubs of global economic networks into instruments of surveillance and coercion
06 Cyberspace & Platforms 23 concepts
Attention economy, network protocols, digital sovereignty, and platform anatomy.
- #087 Attention economy attention economy — Treating human attention as a scarce resource harvested by media and platforms
- #088 Surveillance capitalism surveillance capitalism — Extracting and monetizing human behavioral data for prediction and modification
- #089 Enshittification enshittification — The three-stage decay of digital platforms from user value to rent extraction
- #090 Dead internet theory dead internet theory — The takeover of online spaces by automated bots and synthetic content
- #091 Hyperreality hyperréalité — When simulations and signs replace and outshine the reality they once referred to
- #093 Dark patterns dark patterns — Deceptive user interfaces engineered to trick people into unintended choices
- #094 Datafication datafication — Translating ever more aspects of human life and nature into quantified data
- #095 Platformization platformization — Digital intermediaries reshaping markets, labor, and public spheres around their rules
- #096 Algorithmic management algorithmic management — Automated systems assuming the roles of workplace scheduling, surveillance, and evaluation
- #097 Technofeudalism technofeudalism — Digital platforms replacing competitive markets with cloud fiefdoms and rent extraction
- #098 Adversarial interoperability adversarial interoperability — Building new products that plug into dominant platforms without their permission
- #099 Digital semiotics digital semiotics — How computational systems encode, transform, and circulate signs and meaning
- #100 Memetics memetics — Darwinian selection and replication applied to cultural units of imitation
- #101 Philosophy of information philosophy of information — Information as a foundational category of ontology, knowledge, and ethics
- #102 Content moderation content moderation — The governance mechanisms and labor that filter speech on digital platforms
- #103 Algorithmic amplification algorithmic amplification — Recommendation engines boosting engagement-driving content over representative views
- #104 Data brokers data brokers — The shadow industry aggregating, profiling, and trading personal data
- #105 Creator economy creator economy — Independent cultural production monetized through platform algorithms and direct patronage
- #107 Precarization precarization — Shifting economic insecurity and existential risk onto workers and citizens
- #108 Loneliness epidemic loneliness epidemic — Structural decline in social connection and its public health consequences
- #109 Technological solutionism technological solutionism — Recasting complex political and social problems as neatly solvable engineering bugs
07 AI Architecture 30 concepts
Language models, transformers, scaling laws, AI safety, and alignment.
- #110 Transformer Transformer — The self-attention neural architecture powering modern sequence modeling and AI
- #111 Foundation models foundation models — Large-scale models pretrained on broad data and adaptable to diverse downstream tasks
- #112 Large language models (LLMs) large language model — Neural networks trained on vast text corpora to model and generate language
- #113 Generative AI generative AI — Machine learning systems capable of synthesizing novel text, images, audio, and code
- #114 Multimodality multimodality — AI architectures integrating text, vision, audio, and action in a shared representation
- #115 Scaling laws scaling laws — Empirical power-law relationships linking model performance to compute, data, and parameters
- #116 Prompt engineering prompt engineering — Structuring natural-language inputs to steer generative model behavior
- #117 In-context learning in-context learning — Models adapting to new tasks at inference time from examples in the prompt alone
- #118 RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) retrieval-augmented generation — Grounding generative models in external knowledge bases at query time
- #119 RLHF reinforcement learning from human feedback — Aligning language models with human preferences through reinforcement learning
- #120 AI alignment AI alignment — Ensuring that advanced AI systems reliably pursue human-compatible goals and values
- #121 Model hallucinations hallucination — Fluent, confident fabrication of false statements and citations by generative models
- #122 Diffusion models diffusion models — Generative architectures that learn to create data by reversing gradual noise
- #123 Model cards model cards — Standardized documentation of an AI model’s intended uses, limits, and evaluations
- #124 Synthetic data synthetic data — Artificially generated datasets used to train, test, or privatize machine learning
- #125 Privacy-preserving machine learning privacy-preserving machine learning — Cryptographic and statistical techniques for training models without exposing raw data
- #126 Alignment tax alignment tax — The performance or compute cost incurred to make an AI system safe and aligned
- #127 Artificial general intelligence (AGI) artificial general intelligence — Hypothetical AI matching or exceeding human versatility across cognitive domains
- #128 Frontier AI frontier AI — The most capable general-purpose models at the expanding edge of compute and risk
- #129 Prompt injection prompt injection — Exploiting a model’s inability to separate trusted instructions from untrusted data
- #130 Model collapse model collapse — Degeneration of generative models trained recursively on synthetic AI outputs
- #131 AI slop AI slop — Mass-produced, low-effort synthetic content flooding the information commons
- #132 AI governance AI governance — Standards, institutions, and laws regulating the development and deployment of AI
- #133 Algorithmic bias algorithmic bias — Systematic and unfair disparities produced by automated decision systems
- #134 Explainable AI (XAI) explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) — Methods for making black-box machine learning decisions interpretable to humans
- #135 Red teaming red teaming — Structured adversarial testing to uncover vulnerabilities and failure modes
- #136 Synthetic media synthetic media — Algorithmically generated or manipulated audiovisual works and the crisis of provenance
- #137 Dual-use technology dual-use technologies — Research and artefacts applicable to both civilian welfare and military coercion
- #194 The bitter lesson and Moravec’s paradox the bitter lesson and Moravec's paradox — Why scaling general compute beats hand-coded knowledge while sensorimotor skill remains hard
- #195 AI sycophancy and reward hacking AI sycophancy & reward hacking — Models flattering user biases and gaming proxy metrics instead of solving the task
08 Culture & Power 23 concepts
Hegemony, symbolic capital, propaganda, preference cascades, and coercion.
- #138 Overton window Overton window — The range of ideas tolerated as politically acceptable in public discourse
- #139 Affective polarization affective polarization — Political division driven by emotional hostility toward the opposing camp
- #140 Metamodernism metamodernism — Cultural oscillation between postmodern irony and renewed sincerity
- #141 Hypernormalization hypernormalization — Maintaining a collective facade of institutional normalcy when everyone knows the system is failing
- #142 Tyranny of merit the tyranny of merit — How meritocratic sorting breeds hubris among winners and humiliation among the left behind
- #143 Cultural hegemony egemonia culturale — Ruling-class worldviews accepted as natural common sense by the governed
- #144 Thucydides’s Trap Thucydides's Trap — Structural stress and war risk when a rising power challenges a ruling hegemon
- #145 Intersectionality intersectionality — How overlapping axes of race, class, and gender produce compound forms of discrimination
- #146 Critical race theory (CRT) critical race theory — Analyzing how racism is embedded in legal systems and institutional rules
- #147 Postcolonialism postcolonialism — How imperial hierarchies of knowledge, power, and economy persist after decolonization
- #148 Biopolitics biopolitique — Political power exercised through the statistical administration and regulation of biological life
- #149 Posthumanism posthumanism — Decentering human exceptionalism in an age of ecological entanglement and intelligent machines
- #150 Accelerationism accelerationism — Intensifying technological and capitalist dynamics to force a systemic rupture
- #151 Late capitalism Spätkapitalismus — The cultural and economic logic of financialized, hyper-commodified modernity
- #152 Cancel culture cancel culture — Networked boycotts, public shaming, and boundary policing in digital publics
- #153 Culture wars culture wars — Political conflict organized around moral identity, symbols, and ways of life
- #154 DEI diversity, equity, and inclusion — Institutional frameworks for diversity, equity, and inclusion—and the disputes around them
- #155 Matthew effect Matthew effect — Cumulative advantage whereby initial success breeds disproportionate further rewards
- #156 Hyperstition hyperstition — Fictions and prophecies that engineer their own realization by shaping collective action
- #157 Dark forest theory 黑暗森林法则 (dark forest theory) — Cosmic game theory in which revealing one’s existence invites preemptive annihilation
- #158 Rights of nature rights of nature — Granting legal personhood and standing to rivers, forests, and ecosystems
- #187 Sociological vacuum próżnia socjologiczna — The absence of intermediate civic bonds between the family circle and the abstract nation
- #188 Ketman and living in truth ketman / życie w prawdzie (život v pravdě) — Ideological mimicry and ritual conformity versus existential resistance
09 Ethics & Norms 7 concepts
Justice, responsibility in distributed systems, and technological dilemmas.
- #159 Veil of ignorance veil of ignorance — Designing just institutions without knowing what position one will occupy within them
- #160 Virtue ethics vs. consequentialism virtue ethics vs. consequentialism — Whether moral evaluation rests on character and duty or on the outcomes of actions
- #161 Ethics of technology ethics of technology — Moral responsibility for artifacts that reshape human agency and social order
- #162 Information hazards information hazard — True information whose dissemination itself creates catastrophic risk
- #196 Non-identity problem non-identity problem — The paradox of obligations to future people whose very existence depends on our choices
- #197 Banality of evil and the problem of many hands banality of evil & problem of many hands — Systemic harm arising from routinized compliance and fragmented institutional agency
- #198 Imperative of responsibility and heuristics of fear Das Prinzip Verantwortung / Heuristik der Furcht — An ethics for technological civilization giving priority to warnings of irreversible ruin
10 Horizon & Ecology 20 concepts
The Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, energy transition, and existential risk.
- #163 Existential risk existential risk — Threats capable of extinguishing humanity or permanently curtailing its potential
- #164 Longtermism longtermism — The ethical thesis that positively shaping the far future is the key moral priority of our time
- #165 Effective altruism effective altruism — Using empirical evidence and impartial reasoning to do the most good per unit of resource
- #166 Critique of effective altruism critique of effective altruism — Philosophical and institutional challenges to utilitarian philanthropy and longtermist power
- #167 Anthropocene Anthropocene — The geological epoch in which human activity has become the dominant planetary force
- #168 Degrowth degrowth — Planned reduction of material and energy throughput in rich economies to stay within ecological limits
- #169 Planetary boundaries planetary boundaries — Nine biophysical thresholds defining a safe operating space for humanity
- #170 Doughnut economics doughnut economics — Navigating between a social foundation of human dignity and an ecological ceiling
- #171 Fermi paradox Fermi paradox — The tension between the vastness of the cosmos and the absence of visible alien civilizations
- #172 Net zero net zero — Balancing residual greenhouse gas emissions with equivalent durable removals
- #173 Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) carbon dioxide removal — Technological and biological methods for extracting CO2 from the atmosphere
- #174 Just transition just transition — Decarbonizing the economy without shifting the costs onto workers and vulnerable regions
- #175 Abundance agenda abundance agenda — Overcoming regulatory and institutional bottlenecks to build clean energy, housing, and science
- #176 Amara’s law Amara's law — Overestimating the impact of a technology in the short run and underestimating it in the long run
- #177 Game B Game B — Searching for a cooperative, non-rivalrous civilizational operating system
- #178 Liminal thinking liminal thinking — Suspending inherited beliefs at the threshold between worlds to reframe reality
- #179 Deepfake deepfake — Synthetically manipulated video and audio that erode perceptual trust
- #180 Climate adaptation climate change adaptation — Adjusting infrastructure, ecosystems, and institutions to unavoidable climate impacts
- #181 Climate justice climate justice — Addressing the asymmetry between who caused greenhouse emissions and who suffers their harm
- #182 Loss and damage (L&D) loss and damage — Accountability and finance for irreversible climate harms beyond the limits of adaptation