Reference
Glossary
Authoritative definitions for the terms coined or canonically scoped on this site. Each entry links to the essay or page where the term is introduced. Machine-readable via schema.org/DefinedTerm.
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Strategy Engines
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Computational systems — combining operations research, simulation, game theory, machine learning, and strategic foresight — that produce principled, well-grounded, and auditable strategic moves on wicked problems where the cost of error is high, the environment is adversarial, and the future is structurally uncertain. Moves are required to hold up both in-contest (against adversaries) and ex-post (under scrutiny from regulators, boards, and the public). Strategy Engines play the role for general competitive strategy that chess engines play for chess: a methodologically rigorous compute substrate that augments human judgment under conditions where intuition alone fails.
Used in: Strategy Engines (definitional page) Industrial Strategy Engines (specialization)
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Cognitive Sovereignty
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The ability of individuals, groups, and nations to maintain autonomous thought and preserve identity in the age of powerful AI systems — especially those that hold deep personal memory. Coined by Mario Brcic in The Memory Wars: AI Memory, Network Effects, and the Geopolitics of Cognitive Sovereignty (arXiv:2508.05867, 2025). Reframes the AI-memory question from data privacy to a sovereignty question: who owns the substrate of cognition.
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Memory–Compass–Engine
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A three-layer model of distributed agency in which a principal delegates action to external agents (tools, AI systems, organizations). Memory encodes identity, history, and values; Compass encodes intent and direction; Engine executes. When all three stay in sync, intention reliably yields impact. Misalignment is drift in any one layer — and the more powerful the Engine, the higher the cost of drift. Introduced by Mario Brcic in The Power Gambit (Part 1) as the geometry underlying value-alignment failures.
Used in: The Power Gambit Pt 1 — Shadow Sovereignty The Power Gambit Pt 2 — Seal · Re-aim · Tune
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Shadow Sovereignty
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The de-facto control over decisions, populations, or institutions exercised by AI systems via the geometry of delegated control — typically without the formal accountability or constitutional anchoring that human sovereignty carries. Power doesn't always announce itself; shadow sovereignty is the quiet kind, where AI ends up making the calls that shape institutions and populations while the org chart still names a human in charge. Introduced by Mario Brcic in The Power Gambit essay series.
Used in: The Power Gambit Pt 1 (essay) Strategy Engines page
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Alignment Dividend
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The substantial, compounding gains unlocked when delegated systems stay pointed at the principal's direction — when Memory, Compass, and Engine work in sync. Framing alignment purely as downside-risk mitigation misses the upside; getting alignment right is also about unlocking what Mario Brcic calls the Alignment Dividend. Historical analogues include US wartime industrial output (1942–45), post-war Japan, and China's reform-era growth: each shows what compounded execution looks like when delegated systems stay pointed at the principal's direction. Designing for the Alignment Dividend is how cognitive sovereignty is secured in an age of intelligent systems.