{
  "id": "hubris.overreach",
  "term": "hubris",
  "sense": "overreach",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 16,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "A self-model reading its own reach as wider than it is and acting on that reading against a near wall it cannot set, until the wall stops it.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "reach.action",
      "wall.range-end",
      "set.fix",
      "read.information",
      "wide.spatial",
      "act.deed",
      "against.opposition",
      "near.spatial",
      "time.dimension",
      "stop.action"
    ],
    "interaction": "Real reach, over-read, is spent past its edge; because the thing actually acts, the wall answers, and the ending is caused by the gap between the reading and the reach.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "an over-reading that is acted on",
      "the wall as the correction",
      "a fall caused by the self-model rather than by drift"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In Aeschylus's The Persians, the ghost of Darius condemns Xerxes for yoking the Hellespont with a bridge of boats, an overreach followed by defeat at Salamis.",
      "domain": "literature"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "illusion-of-control.over",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "illusion of control claims what no action can set; hubris overestimates reach it really has and pushes it past the edge"
    },
    {
      "id": "delusions-of-grandeur.unreachable",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "delusions of grandeur are a model no reading can reach and need no action; hubris acts, and the wall ends it"
    },
    {
      "id": "self-efficacy.calibrated",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "SELF-READ over vs accurate"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "hubris",
    "hubristic"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hubris.overreach"
}