Vocabulary

The core words of Avolve, each defined once and in order. Every definition uses only plain words and words defined above it, so you can start at the top with nothing assumed.

A word marked Proposed is a suggestion that has not been accepted yet. A word marked Open is still being decided.

1. Supercivilization
1. Superachiever
2. Superachievers

One world unfolds into two ways to play. The two unfold into three areas that are mine and four that are ours.

The Ground

What everything else stands on.

Person: A person is one human being.
Value: Value is anything that makes a life or a business better.
Positive-sum: Positive-sum means everyone involved can gain. No gain has to come from someone else’s loss. Zero-sum means one gains only what another loses. Negative-sum means more is lost than gained.
Value destroying: Value destroying is behavior that leaves everyone worse off. It is negative-sum.
Value usurping: Value usurping is behavior that takes value others made. It is zero-sum.
Value producing: Value producing is behavior that makes value others want. It is positive-sum, and it is good.
Value creating: Value creating is behavior that makes new value that did not exist before. It is positive-sum, and it is great.
Infinite game: An infinite game is played to keep playing and keep improving. A finite game is played to win and be over.
Regen: Regen is the thriving way to live: value producing and value creating, in positive-sum infinite games. It is short for regenerating.
Solarpunk: Solarpunk is one side of regen: the hopeful, open side, building in public for a future that is good for people and the living world. Its look is daylight.
Lunarpunk: Lunarpunk is the other side of regen: the protected side, privacy first, so that what is personal stays in a person’s own hands. Its look is night.
Degen: Degen is the surviving way to live: value usurping and value destroying, in zero-sum and negative-sum games that end. It is short for degenerating. Every person is still partly in it.
The one commandment: Always regen. Never degen. In plain words: never win at anyone’s expense, including your own. It is for the prosperity, happiness, longevity, and intelligence of humans.
To avolve: To avolve is to go from degen to regen, further and faster, under your own direction.

The Three Sizes and the Two Civilizations

Individual: An individual is one person. Also called solo.
Collective: A collective is individuals working as one. Also called a team.
Ecosystem: An ecosystem is many collectives and individuals that grow together. Also called a firm.
Scale: Scale is the size at which something happens: individual, collective, or ecosystem.
Vivify, unify, thrive: What each scale does. An individual vivifies further, which means coming more alive. A collective unifies faster. An ecosystem thrives forever.
Civilization: A civilization is made of individuals, collectives, and ecosystems.
Anticivilization: The Anticivilization is the civilization that runs on degen.
Supercivilization: Supercivilization is the civilization that runs on regen: enhanced individuals (superhumans), advanced collectives (supersocieties), and balanced ecosystems (supergeniuses). It is also the organization a person joins.
The parallel civilization: The two civilizations exist side by side, now. The Anticivilization has more of people’s attention, for now. Supercivilization is emerging and growing.
Adoption curve: The adoption curve is how a new way spreads: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards. Regen is spreading along it.
The flippening: The flippening is the point where more of life runs on regen than on degen.
The three frames: Three ways to tell the story. The Regeneration Awakening names the jobs to be done. The Anticivilization Conspiracy names the pains to be relieved. The Supercivilization Future names the gains to be created.

The Family Office

Family: Family is the personal side of a person’s life. Personal success.
Office: Office is the business side of a person’s life. Business success.
Family office: A family office looks after both sides of one life as a whole: family and office. It is more than wealth management.
Principal: A principal is the person a family office serves, and the one who decides.
Modern family office principal: A modern family office principal may be emerging or existing, and a beginner, intermediate, or advanced one.
SolopreneurOpen: A solopreneur is one person running a business on their own: a principal at individual scale.
Agent: An agent is AI that does work for a principal and answers to them.
Agentic virtual family office: An agentic virtual family office is a family office run with agents, personal and business, in place of a large paid staff.
Do it yourself, done with you, done for you: The three levels of help with a family office: do it yourself, done with you, done for you.
Who does the workProposed: Who does the work changes with the level of help: the principal with their own agents, then agents and a guide, then Avolve’s people and agents.
Who decidesProposed: Who decides never changes. The principal sets what is wanted and the limits, approves anything that matters, and can stop or undo.
MandateProposed: A mandate is what a principal has allowed an agent to do: what, where, how much, and until when.
ApprovalProposed: An approval is a principal’s yes to one stated action, kept on record, with a way to undo.
Whole viewProposed: The whole view is one picture of everything a principal is responsible for, across family and office.
Own accounts: Ideally a family office runs in its own accounts, such as GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, and Resend, so its principal owns it.
Single family office: A single family office is one principal’s own: one principal, one family, one office.
Multi family office: A multi family office is several principals, families, and offices working together.
Hybrid family office network: The hybrid family office network is all the single family offices and multi family offices, linked. It is Supercivilization.

The Method

Genius: Genius is Joshua Seymour’s method for getting from where you are to what you want.
Current: Current is where you are now, known exactly, including what you do not want.
Desired: Desired is what you want, written down and decided.
Actions: Actions are what you do to get from Current to Desired.
Results: Results are what really happened, kept as a score and reviewed.
The method: The method is four steps in order: Current, Desired, Actions, Results. It is the method of Genius.
Starting, focusing, finishing: The three moves of the method. Starting goes from Current to Desired. Focusing goes from Desired to Actions. Finishing goes from Actions to Results.
The meta loop: The meta loop: Results become the next Current, so the method repeats, big and small.
LoopProposed: A loop is one turn of the method on one thing.
Dream, chief aim, objective, goal, action: From largest to smallest: dream, chief aim, objective, goal, action. One chief aim at a time. Dreams carry no deadlines.
Momentum cycle: The momentum cycle: success builds confidence, confidence builds activity, activity builds habits, and habits build more success.
Supermind: A supermind is the meta loop at work in a person: their power to run the method on anything. Agents make it more super.
Superpowers: Superpowers are what a principal develops and has through their supermind.
GEN: GEN is the root of the words. It comes from an old root that means to give birth or bring forth, and it runs through generate, generation, Genius, regen, and degen.
Geni: Geni is Avolve’s main agent: GEN plus I. Its helpers are Genia, Genie, and Genio. The name goes back to the Roman genius, a guardian spirit that watched over a person from birth.
GEN pointsProposed: GEN points are the visible record of real Results. Earned, never bought, never traded.

The Game

Already happening: The game is real life. It is already being played, whether a person knows it or not.
Success puzzle: A success puzzle is what one principal creates: their family side, their office side, and the supermind that runs both. It is their single family office in the words of the game.
Nobody plays your character: Nobody plays your character. Each success puzzle is its own principal’s responsibility. Others can see how you play, if you choose.
Superpuzzle: The superpuzzle is what principals co-create together. It is the multi family office in the words of the game.
Side: Side says whose it is. Mine is the success puzzle. Ours is the superpuzzle.
Puzzle pieceProposed: A piece is one part of a puzzle. It moves by loops.
Superachiever: A superachiever is a principal playing the game: a super entrepreneur teamed up with super technology. Superachiever is also the name of the single family office and of the first way to play.
Superachievers: Superachievers are superachievers together. It is also the name of the multi family office and of the second way to play.
Superachiever mode: The first way to play: on your own time, alone or alongside others, creating your success puzzle. It brings benefits.
Superachievers mode: The second way to play: at the same time, together, co-creating our superpuzzle. It brings rewards.
Avolve: Avolve is a new word, a play on evolve, and five things under one name: the verb, the game, the app, the agentic virtual family office, and Joshua Seymour’s own family office. It is to Supercivilization what Claude is to Anthropic, or v0 to Vercel.
Discover: Discover is the first phase: finding a thing and why it matters.
Onboard: Onboard is the second phase: learning how it works by doing it.
Progress: Progress is the third phase: the loop a person returns to. Most play happens here.
Complete: Complete is the fourth phase: the thing is done, and the next one opens.
Fractal phases: Everything goes through the four phases: Discover, Onboard, Progress, Complete. The four repeat inside every part, and completing one part makes the next discoverable.
Levels, stages, phases: A level is how far along a person is in one area: beginner, intermediate, or advanced. It differs from area to area.
Positive-sum testProposed: The positive-sum test is the test every rule of the game must pass: no reward may exist only because someone else lost it.

The Ten

One world, two ways to play, three areas that are mine, four that are ours.

Supermind Superpowers: Mine, at ecosystem scale: the principal’s own part. The supermind and superpowers that run the personal side and the business side.
Personal Success Puzzle: Mine, at individual scale: the family side of a success puzzle. Health, wealth, and peace.
Business Success Puzzle: Mine, at collective scale: the office side of a success puzzle. Network and net worth.
Superpuzzle Developments: Ours, as a whole: progress on the grand superpuzzle, toward wealth, health, and peace in your lifetime.
Superhuman Enhancements: Ours, at individual scale: freeing yourself and loved ones, as child, youth, and adult.
Supersociety Advancements: Ours, at collective scale: freeing others and everybody, through companies, communities, and countries.
Supergenius Breakthroughs: Ours, at ecosystem scale: solving superpuzzles through ventures, enterprises, and industries.
The seven areas: The seven areas are the three scales, each with a mine side and an ours side, plus the whole.
One, two, three, four: One is Supercivilization. Two is Superachiever and Superachievers. Three is Supermind Superpowers, Personal Success Puzzle, and Business Success Puzzle. Four is Superpuzzle Developments, Superhuman Enhancements, Supersociety Advancements, and Supergenius Breakthroughs. The one unfolds into two. The two unfolds into three and four.
Seven sections: The seven sections are the seven areas as one publication: News, Education, Lifestyle, Social, Business, Finance, Productivity. Each section is its own newsletter, podcast, channel, and calendar.

Belonging

Membership: Membership is how a person belongs to Supercivilization: by subscribing, participating, and contributing.
Publicly subscribe: To subscribe is to join Supercivilization, publicly.
Privately participate: To participate is to create your success puzzle as a superachiever, privately.
Secretly contribute: To contribute is to co-create the superpuzzle with other superachievers, secretly.
Member: A member is a superachiever who belongs to Supercivilization.
Benefits, rewards, privilegesOpen: What a member gains: access from subscribing, benefits from participating, rewards from contributing.
Member, Mentee, Mentor, Master: Member, mentee, mentor, master: the path a person takes in learning with others, as student, parent, and teacher.
Membership tiers: Three kinds of member, one for each scale: Enhanced Individuals, Advanced Collectives, Balanced Ecosystems.
Small groupProposed: A small group is a few principals who meet in confidence, inside the wider network.
Affiliation: Affiliation is a visible tie between an ecosystem and the individuals and collectives that belong to it, like a badge.
Author: An author is a person who writes what they know, under their own name. Joshua Seymour is the author of Genius.
Creator: A creator is a person who makes creative works, such as sites and apps. Joshua Seymour is the creator of Avolve.
Founder: A founder is a person who starts an organization and works for it. Joshua Seymour is the founder of Supercivilization.
Joshua Seymour: Joshua Seymour is a modern family office principal: author of Genius, creator of Avolve, founder of Supercivilization, a fellow player, and a guide for some.

The Parallel Society

The four stages come from The Network State, a book by Balaji Srinivasan. Here they belong to Supersociety Advancements.

Parallel society: A parallel society is the word The Network State uses for any of the four stages below. It is not set against the mainstream on every point.
Startup society: A startup society is a new community built on the internet first, joined by choice, around one purpose. Here: a company of core cooperators.
Network union: A network union is a startup society organized to act together. Here: a community of mesh connectors.
Network archipelago: A network archipelago is a network union with real places around the world, connected online. Here: a country of node operators.
Network state: A network state is a network archipelago that an existing government has recognized. None exists yet. For this world it is a direction.

The Parts of a Network State

The Network State defines a network state by 12 parts. Beside each is what plays that part here. These pairings are a first reading and still open.

A social network

One coherent community online. Joining is selective and by application, and money alone does not buy it (p221).

Here: Supercivilization’s membership: one network. Reading and subscribing are open to anyone. An account is by invitation, and each invitation is vetted.

A moral innovation

A principle the society holds to be good that most of the world holds to be bad, or the reverse. It is the society’s reason to exist (p221).

Here: The one premise: regen over degen.

A sense of national consciousness

Everyone feels part of one community, with things done together behind them and more they want to do (p222).

Here: Superachievers and the superpuzzle: things done together, in a shared vocabulary.

A recognized founder

A leader people choose to follow by joining. The book would keep the founder’s control and relies on the freedom to leave as the check (p222).

Here: Joshua Seymour, founder, who works for the member and the members; a fellow player and guide. If principals hold their own accounts, the founder has no control over their family offices.

A capacity for collective action

A shared purpose and the ability to act on it. The book notes that today’s social networks score individuals and give groups no way to set and reach goals together (p223).

Here: The superpuzzle, run by the method at collective and ecosystem scale, in small groups.

An in-person level of civility

People treat each other online as they would face to face. Trust comes from a shared purpose (p223).

Here: The first rule: never condescending, presumptuous, confusing, frustrating, annoying, or gimmicky.

An integrated cryptocurrency

The digital backbone: assets, contracts, sign-ins, certificates, registries, statistics (p223). More broadly, a system of record the society controls (p229).

Here: A system of record each principal owns: their family office in its own accounts. GEN is a record, never a currency. No cryptocurrency is planned.

A consensual government limited by a social smart contract

Authority only over people who chose to join, limited to what they agreed to. Everyone has opted in and can leave at any time (p224).

Here: Membership terms anyone can read; the mandate, which limits what agents and Avolve may do; leaving at any time with everything.

An archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories

The physical footprint: homes, shops, and offices in clusters around the world, linked online (p223).

Here: The family offices themselves, and the homes and businesses principals already have. No shared land is planned.

A virtual capital

Where a spread-out people gather online. Remote first, for a whole society: what counts is what is in the system of record (p229).

Here: The app, Avolve, on web and mobile.

An on-chain census

Population, income, and land, counted in real time and provable, because outsiders will not take the numbers on trust (p227).

Here: Real counts only, shown publicly. A signed credential can prove membership without a blockchain; how outsiders check the totals is open.

Diplomatic recognition

What separates a network state from a startup society. Without it, others do not treat the society as real (p231).

Here: A direction. Nearer forms: a legal form for Supercivilization (open), and the recognition of peers.