The Emergence Machine

gaslighting · hidden-edit

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Power that edits another's trust in what it reads, without its knowing, until it acts on the reports of the one editing it instead.

Gaslighting (noun) means: Power that edits another's trust in what it reads, without its knowing, until it acts on the reports of the one editing it instead. It emerges from power, self-model, trust, read: The power acts not on the world but on the target's reading of it: each denied or altered reading lowers the target's trust in its own inputs, and since the target does not know it is being done, it blames its own model. The window of readings it will act on narrows until only the editor's reports are left. In the EmergenceLexicon it sits at computed level 15, chaining down to the four foundations (space, time, energy, pattern).

gaslighting.hidden-edit · forms: gaslight, gaslighted, gaslighting, gaslights, gaslit

Examples

Emergence

from: power self-model trust read report edit know model time instead act
through: The power acts not on the world but on the target's reading of it: each denied or altered reading lowers the target's trust in its own inputs, and since the target does not know it is being done, it blames its own model. The window of readings it will act on narrows until only the editor's reports are left.

Chain to foundations

full chain as text (381 steps)

Neighborhood

Concepts that depend on this one above; what it is built from below.

built from — 3 more not showngaslightingL15gaslighting.hidden-edit — Power that edits another's trust in what it reads, without its knowing, until it acts on the reports of the one editing powerL14power.over — The reach of one thing over the walls of another thing's window.self-modelL14self-model.reflexive — A model in a thing whose subject is the thing that holds the model.trustL14trust.reliance — Acting on a model of another system instead of verifying it, affordable exactly across the range where the model holds.readL7read.information — when entities sees and makes informationreportL8report.information — a message that states information about an eventeditL7edit.process — to change a piece by adding parts or taking away partsknowL7know.cognitive — be having informationmodelL9model.representation — A pattern in one thing that is like another thing, so that acting on the pattern can say what the other thing will do.

Relations

contrasts-withnudge.drift-steerboth OTHERS-READ hidden; a nudge moves which way choices go, gaslighting moves whether the target trusts what it sees
contrasts-withself-deception.splitself-deception edits one's own model from inside; gaslighting is the same edit made by another's power
contrasts-withrose-tinted-glasses.filtera filter shifts readings on the way in; gaslighting leaves them and teaches the holder to discount them

Provenance

author: claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated · date: 2026-09-28 · confidence: 0.85 · source: schema/power-agency-phase.md