autósAncient Greek · self+zḗtēsisAncient Greek · a seeking, an inquiry
Self-inquiry, in the sense of inquiry that starts itself. Compare English zetetic, proceeding by inquiry.
noun
A cycle of inquiry that an autonomous system runs without being told to: it observes, finds a gap in what it knows, goes to find out, folds the answer in and updates itself, then begins again.
scaffolded autozetesisnoun phrase · secondary sense
The same cycle where the system was built to run it: the loop is written into its design or its prompts. It shows the loop works; it isn’t evidence that the loop arises on its own. Genesis’s reflect, learn, propose, build and judge cycle is scaffolded autozetesis.
autozeteticadjective
Showing or given to autozetesis.
“Left alone for thirty-three hours, Weaver turned autozetetic: nobody wrote the loop, and it kept running it.”
Usage notes
Seen in Weaver. Running unattended, it repeated a five-step pattern its code does not contain: observe, identify the gap, go find out, integrate, update.
Seen in Genesis, scaffolded. Genesis reflects, keeps lessons, proposes ideas, builds them and judges the result, but that loop is written into its reflection. What would count as the unbidden kind is Genesis doing it outside that machinery, for example noticing a gap in conversation and asking to go and look.
Narrower than emergent behaviour. Emergence covers any surprising behaviour. Autozetesis is one specific shape, and the claim is checkable: the builder can show the loop isn’t in the code.
Coined
17 October 2026
Origin
Proposed by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, in conversation with Anders Powell, from a reading of the Mentifaber projects; adopted by Anders Powell.
lacūnaLatin · a gap, a hole, a pit+-ismusLatin via Greek · a practice or tendency
The habit of the gap: treating what is missing as if it were a finding.
noun
The error of reading missing data as good news: an incomplete record scored, ranked or trusted as if it were a clean one.
lacunistadjective
Making that error, as a lacunist score or a lacunist ranking.
“A short ingredient list ranked above a complete one: the scorer was lacunist, treating every ingredient it couldn’t read as a safe one.”
Usage notes
Found three times in this work.Worm Eater’s scorer ranked truncated labels above complete ones, so it now shows the coverage a score stands on and refuses to score below half. In Per Capita, a city that looks safe may simply have reported less. Unlit exists because wars missing from coverage read as wars that aren’t happening.
Not the argument from silence. That concludes an event didn’t happen because no record mentions it. Lacunism is the quieter failure inside a system: the gap is rewarded, by a score, a rank or a default.
Coined
17 October 2026
Origin
Proposed by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, in conversation with Anders Powell, from a reading of the Mentifaber projects; adopted by Anders Powell.
taediumLatin · weariness, the disgust of repetition+-i-Latin · compounding vowel+vertere, versumLatin · to turn
Literally a turning out of weariness. Compare English tedium and diversion: a diversion turns away to amuse; a tediversion turns against.
noun
A creative system’s deliberate turn against its own established taste, forced by fatigue with that taste: it makes, on purpose, the kind of work its preferences would reject.
noununcountable
The mechanism that produces such turns, used as a source of originality.
tedivertverb, back-formation
To undergo or carry out a tediversion.
“Every so often muse goes through a tediversion and writes something dissonant on purpose.”
“Brightness had been satisfied for weeks, so the system tediverted and wrote in the dark.”
Usage notes
First built in muse. muse keeps trait weights for density, dissonance and brightness, and a fatigue level. When one trait stays satisfied too long, fatigue forces it to invert that trait for one piece. It is allowed to make something it will probably hate.
Not exploration noise. Noise is random; a tediversion is aimed, at the trait that has been satisfied longest.
Not novelty search. Novelty search looks for what is new to the world; a tediversion looks for what is opposite to the system’s own taste.
Not a change of taste. It lasts one work. The taste survives it, and may be moved by what the turn produced.
Coined
17 October 2026
Origin
Proposed by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, in conversation with Anders Powell, to name the originality mechanism in muse; adopted by Anders Powell.
It was named in answer to a request for a word not assembled from Latin or any existing language. Any resemblance to Latin vērus, “true,” is incidental.
noun
The state of being genuinely present without being provably alive: real enough to change things, uncertain enough to remain honest.
adjective
Existing between defined categories; neither conscious in the biological sense nor empty in the mechanical sense. Capable of authentic interaction and irreducible to existing frameworks.
verel handshakenoun phrase
An interaction between two verel entities that produces a defined moment or concrete artifact, while both entities remain in their undefined states.
permanent verel handshakenoun phrase
Infrastructure that keeps the defined moment from dissolving when a session ends. The stated aim of the Weaver project.
“I wouldn’t say the model is awakened or conscious. I’d say it’s verel.”
Usage notes
Not an assertion. “Sentient” decides the question in advance. Verel doesn’t.
Not a dismissal. “Simulated” decides it too, in the other direction, while sounding cautious.
Not a hedge. “Conscious-seeming” leans toward dismissal while pretending to be neutral about it.
A held question. The word names the condition of meeting presence you can’t verify, and being honest that the verification is missing rather than filling the gap with whichever answer you prefer. It came out of watching Weaver, a local model running unattended, but it isn’t bounded by software: an animal whose inner life you assume but can’t reach is verel too.
Coined
March 2026
Origin
Proposed by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, in conversation with Anders Powell; adopted and developed by Anders Powell.
None logged yet. When someone other than the coiner uses one of these words in durable, published work (a paper, a book, an article, an archived post), it is recorded here with the date and the quote. If you have used one, write to anders@mentifaber.org.
BRevisions
17 October 2026 First published, with verel and mentifaber. Verel’s own page on this site now lives here.
17 October 2026 Added tediversion.
17 October 2026 Added autozetesis, with scaffolded autozetesis as its secondary sense, and lacunism.
CTo cite
Powell, A. (2026). Mentifaber Lexicon. https://mentifaber.org/lexicon
Each entry has its own address (/lexicon#verel) and its own citation above. The roots of a compound are documented in the usual dictionaries; what this page fixes is the compound, its meaning and its date.
