{
  "id": "the-three-tiers.structure",
  "term": "the three tiers",
  "sense": "structure",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 19,
  "arena": "ontology",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "Six terms, then a model, then a self-model, with boundaries at the coordination and reflexive transitions. Falsified if a blind test scrambles their order: words about pure structure needing a model, or words about self-reference closing in six.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "terms.language",
      "model.representation",
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "boundary.limit",
      "pure.state",
      "reference.citation",
      "words.language",
      "six.cardinal",
      "test.assessment",
      "blind.unobserved",
      "need.psychological",
      "self.personal",
      "structure.arrangement",
      "time.dimension"
    ],
    "interaction": "The components interact to form a layered structure where increasing constraint from six terms through model to self-model is maintained by feedback, falsifiable by drift in unobserved parameters that disrupts the order essential to pure structure and self-reference.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "layered constraint",
      "reflexive transition",
      "falsifiable order"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Linux kernel's versioning system uses six development stages, a stable release model, and self-documenting changelogs maintained through automated testing.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "The U.S. Constitution established three branches of government, a system of judicial review, and a self-amending process tested by Supreme Court rulings over time.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "A bee colony maintains six types of pheromones, a queen-centered regulation model, and a self-monitoring feedback loop during swarming cycles.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "retrofit:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "Sample/we-already-had-the-words.md"
    ],
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Dropped non-constitutive components: order.arrangement, feedback.communication, maintenance.upkeep, drift.aimless, close.spatial. Added genuinely constitutive concepts from definition's semantic depen"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-three-tiers.structure"
}