Foreword

This document is a long-horizon platform for capturing, modeling, and re-instantiating individual human beings as running simulations across changing generations of artificial intelligence. It consolidates the architectural framework of the Virtual Human OS and the formal specification of the Human Description Language (HDL) used to describe a subject.

Plain language is used throughout. The specification is intended to be readable by any reasonably literate person on first pass, parseable by any AI system reading it as input, and durable across the technological generations the platform is designed to outlive.

Part I — Architectural Framework

The Virtual Human OS is a generic operating system for capturing data about one or more human subjects, processing that data, and establishing a running simulation of virtual humans based on the original subjects with as much fidelity as the available data and technologies of the time allow.

The platform wraps current and future AI systems behind a stable but extensible AI Abstraction Layer. It is designed for a twenty-year operational horizon without intentional obsolescence and is structured to minimize architectural debt at all critical boundaries.

Each generation of AI technology should be capable of consuming the original captured data, reapplying updated processing methods and version adjustments, and re-instantiating the virtual human subjects within newer systems while preserving continuity and portability.

Core Architectural Principles

• Substrate independence.

• Open and durable data formats.

• Forward-compatible extensibility.

• Preservation of raw source material.

• Versioned contracts and interfaces.

• Multi-subject scalability.

• Long-term continuity across technological generations.

System Architecture

The architecture is organized into concentric layers, each addressing a distinct concern and each separated from the others by a stable contract:

• AI Substrate — the underlying cognitive engine.

• AI Abstraction Layer — the stable contract interface.

• MATERIAL — captured data and ingestion systems.

• SUBJECT — human modeling systems, expressed in the Human Description Language (HDL).

• RUNTIME — active virtual human execution systems.

• CONTINUITY — long-term preservation and migration systems.

The layered architecture is drawn below, from outermost (longest horizon) to innermost (cognitive engine):

AI Substrate

The AI substrate provides the cognitive capabilities required by a running virtual human, including language generation, reasoning, recall, synthesis, perception, and future cognitive functions not yet defined.

The substrate is intentionally swappable. The operating system depends only on the AI Abstraction Layer and not on any vendor-specific or architecture-specific implementation.

AI Abstraction Layer

The AI Abstraction Layer provides a stable, versioned, extensible contract through which the operating system requests cognitive operations from any supported AI substrate.

Capabilities are expressed in paradigm-independent language such as:

• Recall this memory.

• Reason against this context.

• Generate language conditioned on this corpus.

Adapters translate between substrate-native APIs and the abstraction-layer vocabulary. New substrates may be added without changes upstream.

The MATERIAL Layer — Data Ingestion and Preservation

The MATERIAL layer manages the ingestion and storage of all captured subject information.

Importers

Each media type is processed through a dedicated importer operating under a narrow and stable contract:

• Text documents.

• Audio recordings.

• Video.

• Biometric streams.

• Structured interviews.

• Future, unknown formats.

Archive

The archive storage layer remains authoritative over all derived databases or indexes. Raw data is never destroyed. Processed outputs are stored alongside the original source material and versioned.

The SUBJECT Layer

The SUBJECT layer models human identity through the Human Description Language (HDL). HDL is a domain-specific language designed to represent drives, heuristics, social structures, narratives, emotional patterns, relationships, and behavioral tendencies.

For the architectural purposes of Part I, HDL is treated as a sealed unit: a stable language used by the SUBJECT layer, parseable by any conforming compiler, and durable across substrate generations. Part II details the language itself.

The RUNTIME Layer — Active Execution

The RUNTIME layer governs how virtual humans operate interactively. A subject described in HDL is brought to life by the runtime through one or more of the following embodiments:

• Text interfaces.

• Synthetic voice.

• Video avatars.

• Robotic embodiment.

• Virtual and augmented reality embodiments.

• Concurrent multi-instance operation.

The runtime is responsible for translating the subject’s HDL description into substrate operations through the AI Abstraction Layer. Different runtimes may emphasize different aspects of the subject without modifying the underlying description.

The CONTINUITY Layer — Long-Term Survival

The CONTINUITY layer ensures survivability across decades of technological change. It is responsible for:

• Migration between AI substrates.

• Versioned contracts.

• Open specifications.

• Forward-compatible data structures.

• Multi-language implementation support.

The continuity layer treats the HDL description and the captured MATERIAL as durable artifacts. The RUNTIME may be replaced; the AI Substrate may be replaced; the subject’s description is preserved and ported forward.

Forward Compatibility

The platform is intentionally designed to accommodate future technologies without requiring architectural redesign. Among the categories anticipated:

• Connectomics.

• Brain-computer interfaces.

• World models.

• Cognitive extensions.

• Synthetic embodiment.

• Multi-instance synchronization.

• Genome-connectome-envirome packaging.

The architecture is based on additive accommodation rather than prediction. Unknown future capabilities should be able to integrate into the platform through stable extension mechanisms.

Part II — The Human Description Language (HDL)

HDL Purpose and Scope

HDL is a domain-specific language for describing the internal structure of a human subject. Its goal is to capture enough about a person — their values, their patterns of feeling and thinking, their characteristic ways of acting toward others, and the story they tell about themselves — that the description can serve as a stable input to AI systems that simulate the person across time.

Two design rules govern everything that follows:

• Readable. Any reasonably literate person should be able to read an HDL document and understand what it says about the subject on first pass.

• Parseable. An AI compiler should be able to read the same document and produce a strict structured form without ambiguity.

Both forms are equivalent. The prose is the authored truth; the structured form is the derived projection used at simulation runtime.

HDL Design Principles

HDL inherits the core principles of the parent architecture and adds two of its own:

• Substrate independence.

• Open and durable formats.

• Forward-compatible extensibility.

• Preservation of raw source material.

• Versioned contracts.

• Plain language. The grammar, the vocabulary, and the specification itself avoid clinical and academic terminology where plain English suffices.

• Authoring transparency. Every statement records who wrote it (the subject themselves, or an AI compiler) and what sources support it.

The Four Subject Layers

HDL organizes statements about a subject into four layers. Every HDL statement belongs to exactly one layer. The layers describe different parts of the person.

Concretely, each layer addresses a distinct family of concerns:

• Layer 1, Drives: Survival, fear, desire, stability.

• Layer 2, Social: Belonging, reciprocity, trust, altruism.

• Layer 3, Heuristics: Biases, influence susceptibility, cognitive shortcuts.

• Layer 4, Narrative: Identity construction, rationalization, moral storytelling.

Note on qualia. Gender identity, sexual desire, subjective experiences, and other identifiable qualia are distributed across the appropriate layers during subject modeling rather than carved out as a separate layer of their own. A subject’s gender identity, for example, may surface in the Narrative layer as self-conception, in the Social layer as how they relate to others, and in the Drives layer as motivation — each at a different place where it expresses itself.

These four layers describe the subject. They are not the same as the four sides of the emotion vocabulary (see The Emotion Vocabulary), which describe where an emotion lives in human experience. The two structures sit alongside each other.

The Authoring Model

HDL is dual-authored. Two kinds of contributor write statements:

• The subject. The person being described may author statements directly. These are authoritative — the compiler does not modify or downgrade them.

• The AI compiler. Statements derived from captured material (journals, recordings, interviews, articles, behavioral data, etc.) are authored by the compiler. These carry full provenance — every statement points back to the sources from which it was derived.

The two modes coexist in the same document. The @AUTHOR annotation on each statement distinguishes them.

The Self-Authority Rule

A statement authored by the subject is preserved as written. The compiler MUST NOT lower its confidence, modify its verb or object, or remove it.

When the compiler finds evidence that appears to contradict a subject-authored statement, it does two things:

• Leaves the subject-authored statement unchanged.

• May add new related-but-distinct statements (authored by the AI, carrying their own @SOURCES and @CONFIDENCE) that refine the model without overruling the subject.

The subject is the authority on their own identity. The compiler is the authority on what the evidence shows. Both voices remain in the document and are visible to any reviewer through the @AUTHOR and @SOURCES annotations on each statement. Neither overwrites the other.

The Prose Grammar

HDL prose is the human-authored or AI-derived surface form of the language. It is what people read and write. The grammar is intentionally small.

Document Frame

Every HDL prose document begins with a header:

PRIMARY_AUTHOR_MODE declares who is expected to write most statements in this document. It does not restrict any individual statement; any statement may use any @AUTHOR value.

Lines beginning with # are comments and are ignored by the parser. Comments may appear anywhere — between statements, inside an annotation block as a trailing line, or as section dividers.

Statement Forms

A statement is one of three shapes, each followed by an annotation block.

Assertion form. Used to declare a stable trait, value, belief, or disposition:

Conditional form. Used to declare a stimulus-response pattern:

Chain form. Used to declare a blended state — a sequence in which one inner state causes the next, across the sides of experience:

Each link in the chain references an emotion or state from the vocabulary. The verb at each link signals which side of experience that link inhabits: FEEL for Internal Feelings, BECOME for a Thinking State or Body State, ACT for External Behavior. A chain may have two, three, or more links.

The Verb Set

The verb set is small and additive. Verbs are added when a workaround using existing verbs appears at least twice in real compilation output.

The chain-form verbs FEEL, BECOME, DO, and ACT appear only in the conditional and chain forms. They are not used in standalone assertions.

Intensity Modifiers

Optional intensity modifiers follow the object of an assertion or the response of a conditional:

The Annotation Block

Every statement is followed by an indented annotation block. One tag per line, in any order. The first four are required; the rest are optional.

A source-pointer is a relative path with an optional fragment identifier, for example journal/2024-11-02.txt#para_3. The pointer self-attestation/<date> is the canonical form for statements the subject authored directly.

The @CHAIN annotation makes the side-to-side flow of a chain-form statement explicit, for compilers that prefer to read the chain without parsing prose. The @AS_OF annotation declares when a claim was first true or most recently confirmed; it supports temporal modeling — for example, a value held at age twenty-five may differ from one held at sixty-five.

The Heuristics Layer: Two Synchronized Forms

The Heuristics layer carries an unusual burden among the four subject layers. Drives, Social, and Narrative all benefit from human prose — a person’s fears, their patterns of trust, the story they tell about themselves all live naturally in language. But heuristics — the characteristic shortcuts and tendencies of mind — are awkward to convey in prose with enough precision for a simulator to use, and yet awkward to convey in pure numbers with enough texture for a human reviewer to recognize the subject.

HDL handles this by giving the Heuristics layer two equivalent forms that travel together:

• The prose form, written in the same grammar as every other layer, readable on first pass.

• A derived projection, written in a small structured vocabulary the runtime can consume directly.

Both forms describe the same subject. The prose is the authored truth; the projection is the derived structured form. The compiler maintains both and keeps them in sync. The same @SOURCES, @CONFIDENCE, and @AUTHOR rules govern both.

The original symbolic forms mentioned in the historical note at the end of this document (DEFINE AXIOM, SET STYLE, MAP TRIGGER) were an early attempt at the projection alone. The current spec keeps the projection’s expressive power and adds prose on top of it.

Heuristics Verbs (Prose Form)

The Heuristics layer is the home of the following verbs:

Worked prose examples:

The Heuristics Projection (Structured Form)

The compiler derives a structured projection for runtime use. The projection has three families of slots. Every slot carries a value and a @CONFIDENCE; the @SOURCES on the originating prose statements remain reachable through the projection metadata.

Decision Style. Continuous-valued dispositions along named axes. Each axis carries a value in [0.0, 1.0] (or a qualitative token where numeric calibration is not yet supported by the evidence).

Biases. Named recognized tendencies, each with a strength in [0.0, 1.0]:

Influence Susceptibility. The channels through which the subject is most reliably moved, each with a strength in [0.0, 1.0]:

A worked example of a complete projection block, for the Einstein subject of the Worked Example below:

The Prose-to-Projection Mapping

Each prose verb maps to one or more projection slots according to a published mapping table maintained alongside the vocabulary. The mapping table is the compiler contract — given a verb, an object, and an intensity, it produces an update to a projection slot.

Intensity modifiers (strongly, moderately, weakly, rarely, occasionally, always) translate to discrete deltas on the slot value. The exact deltas are part of the compiler version and may be tuned without breaking the prose form. A reviewer can always retrace any projection value to the prose statements that produced it, and from there to the @SOURCES.

Why Both Forms

A reviewer reading the prose form can see the subject’s mind in language they recognize. A runtime consuming the projection form can drive decision-making directly without re-parsing prose at every turn. Because both forms are derived from the same statements and carry the same provenance, the runtime’s behavior remains traceable to specific sources — a property the architecture treats as non-negotiable.

The projection is the only place in HDL where numeric values are first-class. Drives, Social, and Narrative remain prose-only; their richness comes from the choice of verb and object rather than from any calibration. Heuristics is the exception because the subject’s tendencies of mind are most usefully simulated as continuous tendencies.

The Emotion Vocabulary

HDL prose may reference emotion words in FEEL responses and in chain forms. These references resolve against an emotion vocabulary file. The vocabulary is organized so that the same word can be looked up by its name and analyzed by where it lives in human experience.

The vocabulary uses four plain-language sides. The same word may live in more than one side at once. Most emotions are blended — a person who is anxious is feeling something, thinking something, and bracing physically, all at once.

The Four Sides

Categories Within Each Side

Internal Feelings has four categories: high-energy uplifting, high-energy distressing, low-energy uplifting, low-energy distressing.

Body States has two categories: drained, activated.

Thinking States has four categories: disrupted, engaged, overloaded, self-focused.

External Behavior has four categories: withdrawing, asserting, welcoming, yielding.

Appendix A lists every entry in the canonical vocabulary together with the side or sides it touches. Appendix B gives a brief working definition for each.

Multi-Side and Blended States

Many emotions touch more than one side. For example:

Many human states are not a single emotion but a sequence in which one state gives rise to the next. The classic example is shyness: a person feels anxious (Internal Feelings), becomes self-conscious (Thinking States), and acts shy (External Behavior). The chain form of the grammar is the prose way to express such a sequence.

A few emotions span more than one category within the same side because their character changes with intensity. Ashamed is the clearest example — at high intensity it is high-energy distressing; at low intensity, low-energy distressing. The vocabulary marks these with parenthetical notes:

Vocabulary Extensibility

New emotion words may be added to vocabulary files in any minor version. Existing entries may have additional side-category mappings added but must not have existing mappings removed or repurposed.

Future-human emotions — states described in a subject’s writing as "new emotions" or experiences not in the current human range — are accommodated by adding new entries. Existing entries are not retroactively redefined.

Custom subject-specific vocabulary additions are permitted as a parallel file referenced from the subject’s prose document header. These do not pollute the canonical shared vocabulary.

Worked Example — Instantiating a Historical Figure

A short illustrative example of an HDL prose document. The subject is a well-known historical figure so the statements are recognizable as plausible without the reviewer needing access to primary sources. The example is deliberately compact; a full subject description would have many more statements.

A historical subject is a natural first instantiation: the source material is bounded and public, the subject’s own writings stand in for @AUTHOR self statements, and contemporary writings about the subject stand in for @AUTHOR ai statements derived from external evidence. The four-layer structure of HDL can therefore be exercised end to end on a single subject before the platform is asked to handle a living person.

HDL_VERSION 0.3

SUBJECT_ID "albert_einstein"

PRIMARY_AUTHOR_MODE ai

LAST_COMPILED 2026-05-14

# === Drives ===

THIS SUBJECT VALUES understanding nature deeply.

  @LAYER drives

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.95

  @SOURCES [writings/autobiographical-notes-1949.txt#para_3]

# === Social ===

THIS SUBJECT REJECTS militarism as a path to human security.

  @LAYER social

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.92

  @SOURCES [correspondence/einstein-freud-why-war-1933.txt,

            statements/manifesto-to-europeans-1914.txt]

# === Heuristics ===

THIS SUBJECT DECIDES from first principles when stakes are high.

  @LAYER heuristics

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.85

  @SOURCES [letters/1936-1945/principle-cases.txt]

THIS SUBJECT WEIGHS internal coherence strongly.

  @LAYER heuristics

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.90

  @SOURCES [essay/physics-and-reality-1936.txt]

THIS SUBJECT IS_SWAYED_BY emotional appeals weakly.

  @LAYER heuristics

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.78

  @SOURCES [biography/isaacson-2007.ch_19]

# === Narrative ===

THIS SUBJECT IDENTIFIES_AS a pacifist by conviction.

  @LAYER narrative

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.90

  @SOURCES [interview/the-nation-1931.txt#para_4]

THIS SUBJECT HOPES for supranational governance as a check on war.

  @LAYER narrative

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.88

  @SOURCES [open-letter/to-the-united-nations-1947.txt]

THIS SUBJECT BELIEVES the universe is comprehensible by reason.

  @LAYER narrative

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.93

  @SOURCES [essay/physics-and-reality-1936.txt#section_1]

# === Conditional and chain ===

WHEN THIS SUBJECT learns of war or atrocity,

  they FEEL distressed,

  THEN BECOME reflective,

  THEN ACT defiant.

  @LAYER social

  @AUTHOR ai

  @CONFIDENCE 0.80

  @SOURCES [biography/isaacson-2007.ch_14,

            public-letters/anti-war-statements-1933-1946]

  @CHAIN [distressed -> reflective -> defiant]

# === Derived projection (Heuristics layer) ===

HEURISTICS_PROJECTION subject_id="albert_einstein"

  decision_style:

    deliberation:           0.85  @CONFIDENCE 0.82

    intuition_vs_analysis:  0.60  @CONFIDENCE 0.80

    risk_tolerance:         0.55  @CONFIDENCE 0.65

    novelty_appetite:       0.80  @CONFIDENCE 0.78

    horizon:                long  @CONFIDENCE 0.88

    granularity:            pattern-first  @CONFIDENCE 0.90

    consensus_orientation:  0.20  @CONFIDENCE 0.85

  biases:

    narrative:    0.55  @CONFIDENCE 0.70

    authority:    0.20  @CONFIDENCE 0.80

    confirmation: 0.40  @CONFIDENCE 0.65

  influence_susceptibility:

    emotional_appeal:    0.30  @CONFIDENCE 0.72

    authority_signaling: 0.20  @CONFIDENCE 0.78

    repetition:          0.20  @CONFIDENCE 0.60

This worked example shows how a historical figure exercises the full HDL grammar across all four subject layers, and how the Heuristics projection sits beside the prose form so that a runtime can consume the subject directly. Every value above remains traceable to the @SOURCES on the originating prose statements.

Reserved Words Registry

The following words are reserved by the grammar and may not be used as identifiers, subject IDs, or vocabulary entries.

• Header keywords: HDL_VERSION, SUBJECT_ID, PRIMARY_AUTHOR_MODE, LAST_COMPILED, VOCABULARY_NAME, VOCABULARY_VERSION, LAST_UPDATED.

• Statement keywords: THIS SUBJECT, WHEN, THEN.

• Assertion verbs: VALUES, BELIEVES, FEARS, TRUSTS, PREFERS, DECIDES, WEIGHS, DISCOUNTS, ANCHORS_ON, DEFAULTS_TO, IS_SWAYED_BY, RESISTS, FRAMES, HOPES, IDENTIFIES_AS, REJECTS.

• Chain-form verbs: FEEL, BECOME, DO, ACT.

• Intensity modifiers: strongly, moderately, weakly, rarely, occasionally, always.

• Annotation tags: @LAYER, @AUTHOR, @CONFIDENCE, @SOURCES, @NOTE, @REVIEWED, @CHAIN, @AS_OF.

• Layer values: drives, social, heuristics, narrative.

• Author values: self, ai, other:<id>.

• Projection keywords: HEURISTICS_PROJECTION, decision_style, biases, influence_susceptibility.

Part III — Design Philosophy and Closing

Design Philosophy

The architecture is based on additive accommodation rather than prediction. Unknown future capabilities should be able to integrate into the platform through stable extension mechanisms.

The specification itself is treated as durable infrastructure independent of any single implementation language, AI model generation, or vendor ecosystem.

Project Guidelines

• No built-in obsolescence.

• No vendor lock-in.

• No destructive migrations.

• No architectural debt at core boundaries.

• Documentation written for maintainers decades into the future.

• Open, documented, multi-implementation standards wherever possible.

Versioning

The HDL grammar is at version 0.3. Until 1.0, the grammar may change in non-additive ways with reason. From 1.0 onward, only additive changes within a major version. Removing or repurposing an existing construct requires a major version bump and a documented migration path.

Vocabulary files are versioned independently of the grammar. The emotion vocabulary is currently at version 0.2.

This unified specification is at version 1.1.

Historical note. The initial sketch of HDL used a more symbolic, bracket-and-keyword syntax. The illustrative forms were:

These have been superseded by the prose grammar described in The Prose Grammar above, which preserves the same expressive power while being readable by non-technical reviewers. The expressive content of the original symbolic form has been retained inside the Heuristics Projection (Two Synchronized Forms), so that AI consumers continue to have a directly ingestible structured surface while human reviewers read the prose. The historical forms are preserved here for traceability across the evolution of the language.

Conclusion

This document establishes the architectural baseline for the Virtual Human OS: a platform for capturing real human beings as data, describing them in a stable and durable language, and re-instantiating them across decades of changing AI technology.

A historical figure such as Einstein is the natural first subject — bounded source material, public-domain writings, and contemporary records together exercise every layer of the system without raising consent questions. The same pipeline, once proven on such a figure, becomes the path by which a living subject can be carried forward across substrate generations.

Appendix A — The Complete Emotion Vocabulary

This appendix lists every entry in the canonical emotion vocabulary as of v0.2. Side and category labels use the v0.2 naming. An emotion that touches more than one side has one indented line per side.

AFRAID

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

ALARMED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

ALERT

Body states activated

Thinking states engaged

ALIENATED

External behavior withdrawing

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

AMAZED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

AMUSED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

ANGRY

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

ANNOYED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

ANXIOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

Body states activated

AROUSED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

ARROGANT

External behavior asserting

ASHAMED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing (at high intensity)

Internal feelings low-energy distressing (at low intensity)

Thinking states self-focused

ASTONISHED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

AT EASE

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

AWESTRUCK

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

BEWILDERED

Thinking states disrupted

BITTER

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

BLISSFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

BORED

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

BROODING

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

CALM

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

CHEERFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

COMPASSIONATE

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

CONDESCENDING

External behavior asserting

CONFUSED

Thinking states disrupted

CONTEMPTUOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

CONTENT

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

DAYDREAMING

Thinking states engaged

DEFIANT

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

DELIGHTED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

DEPENDENT

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

External behavior yielding

DEPRESSED

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

DESPERATE

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

DETACHED

External behavior withdrawing

DISDAINFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

DISGUSTED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

DISORIENTED

Thinking states disrupted

DISPIRITED

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

DISTRESSED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

DISTURBED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

DOCILE

External behavior yielding

DROOPY

Body states drained

DUMBSTRUCK

Thinking states disrupted

EAGER

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

ECSTATIC

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

ELATED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

EMBARRASSED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states self-focused

EMPATHETIC

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

ENERGIZED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

ENRAGED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

ENTHUSIASTIC

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

ENVIOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

EUPHORIC

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

EXASPERATED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

EXCITED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

EXHAUSTED

Body states drained

EXUBERANT

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

FOCUSED

Thinking states engaged

FRIGHTENED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

FRUSTRATED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

FULFILLED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

FURIOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

GLOOMY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

GRATEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

GREEDY

External behavior asserting

GRIEF-STRICKEN

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

GRUMPY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

GUILTY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

Thinking states self-focused

HAPPY

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

HATEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

HEARTBROKEN

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

HOPE

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

HOPEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

HORRIFIED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

HOSTILE

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

HUMBLE

External behavior welcoming

HUMILIATED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states self-focused

HURT

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

HYSTERICAL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

IMPATIENT

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

INDIFFERENT

External behavior yielding

INDIGNANT

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

INFATUATED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

INSPIRED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

INSULTED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

INVIGORATED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

IRATE

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

IRRITATED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

ISOLATED

External behavior withdrawing

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

JEALOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

JITTERY

Body states activated

JOYFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

JUBILANT

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

KIND

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

LAZY

Body states drained

LISTLESS

Body states drained

LONELY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

LONGING

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

LOVING

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

MAD

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

MELANCHOLY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

MISERABLE

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

MORTIFIED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states self-focused

MYSTIFIED

Thinking states disrupted

NAIVE

Thinking states self-focused

NAUSEOUS

Body states activated

NERVOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

NOSTALGIC

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

NUMB

Body states drained

OBSTINATE

External behavior asserting

OFFENDED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

ON EDGE

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

OPTIMISTIC

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

OUTRAGED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

OVERWHELMED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

PANICKED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

PARANOID

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

PATIENT

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

External behavior yielding

PEACEFUL

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

PERPLEXED

Thinking states disrupted

PLAYFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

PLEASED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

PROUD

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

PUZZLED

Thinking states disrupted

RATTLED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

REFLECTIVE

Thinking states engaged

REFRESHED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

REGRETFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

REJUVENATED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

RELAXED

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

RELIEVED

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

REMORSEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

RESENTFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

RESERVED

External behavior withdrawing

RESIGNED

External behavior yielding

RESTLESS

Body states activated

Thinking states overloaded

SAD

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

SAFE

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

SATISFIED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

SCARED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

SCORNFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

SECLUDED

External behavior withdrawing

SELF-CONFIDENT

External behavior welcoming

SELF-CONSCIOUS

Thinking states self-focused

External behavior withdrawing

SELF-CRITICAL

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

Thinking states self-focused

SENSITIVE

Thinking states self-focused

SENTIMENTAL

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

SERENE

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

SHAKEN

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

SHOCKED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

SHUNNED

External behavior withdrawing

SHY

External behavior withdrawing

SKEPTICAL

Thinking states engaged

SLEEPY

Body states drained

SLUGGISH

Body states drained

SMUG

External behavior asserting

SORRY

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

SPITEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

STIMULATED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

STRESSED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

STUBBORN

External behavior asserting

STUCK

Thinking states disrupted

SUBMISSIVE

External behavior yielding

SULLEN

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

SURPRISED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

SUSPICIOUS

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

SYMPATHETIC

Internal feelings low-energy uplifting

External behavior welcoming

TENSE

Body states activated

TERRIFIED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Body states activated

THANKFUL

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

THRILLED

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

TIMID

External behavior withdrawing

TIRED

Body states drained

TORMENTED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

TRAPPED

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

TRIUMPHANT

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

TROUBLED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

UNEASY

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

Thinking states overloaded

UNHAPPY

Internal feelings high-energy distressing (at high intensity)

Internal feelings low-energy distressing (at low intensity)

UNNERVED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

UNSETTLED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

UPSET

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

VALIANT

External behavior welcoming

VENGEFUL

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

VIBRANT

Internal feelings high-energy uplifting

Body states activated

VIGILANT

Body states activated

Thinking states engaged

VINDICTIVE

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

External behavior asserting

VULNERABLE

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

WEARY

Body states drained

WELCOMING

External behavior welcoming

WORN OUT

Body states drained

WORRIED

Internal feelings high-energy distressing

WORTHLESS

Internal feelings low-energy distressing

Appendix B — Definitions of the Vocabulary

A brief working definition for each emotion word in the vocabulary. One sentence each, drawing on dictionary sense and lightly enriched with literary nuance to distinguish each word from its neighbors.

AFRAID — A felt sense of present danger; the body bracing against something approaching.

ALARMED — Suddenly awakened to threat; fear caught in the first instant rather than settled.

ALERT — Sharp and ready, attention pointed outward; the absence of drowsiness.

ALIENATED — Set apart from others by something that feels unbridgeable; cut off rather than merely lonely.

AMAZED — Captured by something larger or more wonderful than expected; the mind briefly stops.

AMUSED — Lightly delighted by something playful or absurd; ready to laugh without urgency.

ANGRY — Heated by a wrong that demands a response; pressure wanting to move outward.

ANNOYED — Mildly disturbed by an irritation that has not risen to anger; itchy with displeasure.

ANXIOUS — Worried about something that has not happened; body braced against an unknown future.

AROUSED — Heightened in attention or appetite; awake to something compelling.

ARROGANT — Carrying oneself above others as if entitled; pride without proportion.

ASHAMED — Stung by the sense of having failed a moral or social expectation; wanting to disappear.

ASTONISHED — Stopped short by something so unexpected the ordinary frame breaks.

AT EASE — Settled in body and mind, with nothing pressing for attention.

AWESTRUCK — Made small by something vast; reverence for what exceeds comprehension.

BEWILDERED — Lost in something too complex or surprising to immediately make sense of.

BITTER — Soured by a long-held wrong; resentment that has settled into the bones.

BLISSFUL — Filled with deep, untroubled joy, often spiritual or romantic in flavor.

BORED — Suspended in a stretch of time with nothing engaging; energy with no place to go.

BROODING — Turning a dark thought over and over in private; sullen rumination.

CALM — Steady in body and mind, not stirred by what is around.

CHEERFUL — Bright and easy in mood; spreading lightness with little effort.

COMPASSIONATE — Moved by another’s suffering toward care; the urge to ease pain not your own.

CONDESCENDING — Talking down to someone from an assumed superiority; helpful in a way that demeans.

CONFUSED — Unable to make sense of what is in front of you; comprehension has slipped.

CONTEMPTUOUS — Looking down on someone or something as beneath consideration; cold dismissal.

CONTENT — Quietly satisfied; nothing missing in the moment.

DAYDREAMING — Attention wandered inward from the task at hand; lost in imagined scenes.

DEFIANT — Refusing to comply; standing against pressure as a matter of will.

DELIGHTED — Brightly pleased by something specific; smiling without effort.

DEPENDENT — Relying on another for support one cannot easily provide oneself.

DEPRESSED — Pressed down by sustained sadness or hopelessness; the world has lost color.

DESPERATE — Stretched to the edge of what can be borne; willing to try anything for relief.

DETACHED — Pulled back from emotional involvement; observing rather than feeling.

DISDAINFUL — Scornful with an air of refinement; superiority looking down its nose.

DISGUSTED — Recoiling from something that violates one’s sense of right or clean.

DISORIENTED — Unsure where you are, what time it is, or how things fit together.

DISPIRITED — Drained of enthusiasm by repeated setback; the fire gone out.

DISTRESSED — Suffering acutely; pain at full volume.

DISTURBED — Knocked from inner balance by something unsettling.

DOCILE — Easily led; offering no resistance to direction.

DROOPY — Slumped in body, often a sign of fatigue or low spirits.

DUMBSTRUCK — So surprised that speech leaves; literally without words.

EAGER — Leaning forward into what is about to happen; ready and wanting.

ECSTATIC — Carried out of yourself by joy; nearly overwhelmed by it.

ELATED — Lifted by a recent good thing; buoyant.

EMBARRASSED — Caught with the social mask askew; flush of self-consciousness.

EMPATHETIC — Feeling along with another; their state becoming partly your own.

ENERGIZED — Charged with usable energy; ready to act.

ENRAGED — Anger pushed past control; the heat has the steering wheel.

ENTHUSIASTIC — Bringing positive energy to something; eager and committed at once.

ENVIOUS — Pained by another’s good fortune that you wish were yours.

EUPHORIC — Buoyed by intense well-being, sometimes beyond what circumstances warrant.

EXASPERATED — Worn out by repeated failure of others to do what seems obvious.

EXCITED — Stirred by anticipation of something good; energy with a forward lean.

EXHAUSTED — Spent past the body’s reserves; running on nothing.

EXUBERANT — Overflowing with high spirits; joy that will not stay quiet.

FOCUSED — Attention narrowed to one thing; the rest of the world dimmed.

FRIGHTENED — Afraid in the immediate moment; fear not abstract.

FRUSTRATED — Blocked from doing what you mean to do; effort meeting resistance.

FULFILLED — Carrying a sense of having done or become what you set out to.

FURIOUS — Anger at its hottest; harder to contain than to express.

GLOOMY — Cast in low spirits, often without a single clear cause.

GRATEFUL — Aware of having received something good and inclined to acknowledge it.

GREEDY — Wanting more than is needed or fair; appetite without measure.

GRIEF-STRICKEN — Felled by a loss; sorrow at full weight.

GRUMPY — Mildly bad-tempered; complaining as a baseline mood.

GUILTY — Carrying the weight of having done wrong, even when no one else knows.

HAPPY — Pleased and contented; well-being available to consciousness.

HATEFUL — Carrying active enmity for someone or something; the opposite of warm.

HEARTBROKEN — Sorrowing over the loss of love or closeness; the body feeling the wound.

HOPE — A leaning toward a desired future that one believes might come.

HOPEFUL — Currently holding hope; the future looks like it might cooperate.

HORRIFIED — Repelled by something morally or viscerally wrong on a large scale.

HOSTILE — Actively unfriendly; ready for friction.

HUMBLE — Aware of one’s smallness or limits; not insisting on one’s importance.

HUMILIATED — Knocked low by public exposure of weakness or fault.

HURT — Wounded emotionally by someone’s words or actions.

HYSTERICAL — Beyond control of one’s emotions; the system overrun.

IMPATIENT — Unwilling to wait; the moment cannot move fast enough.

INDIFFERENT — Without preference one way or the other; nothing pulls.

INDIGNANT — Angered by an injustice; the sense of moral offense.

INFATUATED — Captivated by someone, often beyond what knowing them would justify.

INSPIRED — Lifted by something that sparks creation or aspiration.

INSULTED — Stung by someone treating you as less than you deserve.

INVIGORATED — Refreshed and energized; the body and mind both alive again.

IRATE — Loud anger; visibly burning.

IRRITATED — Mildly annoyed by repeated friction; raw edge to the mood.

ISOLATED — Alone and cut off from contact; the world has gone quiet around you.

JEALOUS — Pained by the suspicion or fact of someone else holding what you want or have.

JITTERY — Restless and twitchy; the body unable to hold still.

JOYFUL — Filled with happiness that has weight and depth.

JUBILANT — Joyful in a way that wants to celebrate; cheer at the top of one’s lungs.

KIND — Inclined toward others’ welfare in everyday acts; warmth as a habit.

LAZY — Unwilling to exert effort; preferring inaction.

LISTLESS — Without energy or interest; nothing pulling you forward.

LONELY — Painfully aware of the absence of meaningful company.

LONGING — Reaching toward something or someone absent; the heart pulled forward.

LOVING — Holding warm care for another; the disposition of love active.

MAD — Angered, often by something taken personally; a milder synonym for angry.

MELANCHOLY — A reflective, often gentle sadness; pensive sorrow rather than acute pain.

MISERABLE — Suffering steadily, without relief; everything wrong at once.

MORTIFIED — Shamed past recovery in the moment; horrified at one’s own situation.

MYSTIFIED — Stumped by something that resists understanding.

NAIVE — Innocent of how things really work; trust unweathered by experience.

NAUSEOUS — Sickened in the stomach; the body refusing what is in front of it.

NERVOUS — Tense before something uncertain; smaller than anxious, less than afraid.

NOSTALGIC — Reaching back toward a remembered better time, often with warmth and a faint ache.

NUMB — Without feeling at all; the channels shut down.

OBSTINATE — Refusing to yield, even when the case is clear; stubborn beyond reason.

OFFENDED — Personally affronted; one’s dignity has been touched.

ON EDGE — Wound up and waiting for something to set you off.

OPTIMISTIC — Inclined to believe things will go well; bias toward the positive future.

OUTRAGED — Anger at a wrong felt to be intolerable; moral fury.

OVERWHELMED — Past one’s capacity to process or respond; too much at once.

PANICKED — Fear spiking past control; the body taking over.

PARANOID — Suspecting hostile intent everywhere; fear shaped by mistrust.

PATIENT — Willing to wait; not rushing what cannot or need not be rushed.

PEACEFUL — Without inner disturbance; quietly whole.

PERPLEXED — Puzzled; the mind turning the problem without traction.

PLAYFUL — Lighthearted and ready to invent; mischief without harm.

PLEASED — Mildly happy with how something has turned out.

PROUD — Standing taller for something one has done or someone one is connected to.

PUZZLED — Faced with a question one cannot yet answer; mind working at a gap.

RATTLED — Knocked off composure by surprise or fear; not yet recovered.

REFLECTIVE — Turning a matter over in the mind, considering rather than reacting.

REFRESHED — Restored in body or spirit, often after rest or break.

REGRETFUL — Wishing you had done otherwise; the weight of an old choice.

REJUVENATED — Renewed in vitality; restored to a younger or fresher feel.

RELAXED — Tension gone from the body; ease present.

RELIEVED — The pressure has lifted; the dread did not come to pass.

REMORSEFUL — Sorrowing over harm one has caused; deeper than regret.

RESENTFUL — Holding a slow grudge for an old wrong; bitterness that has not faded.

RESERVED — Holding oneself back from others; not quick to open up.

RESIGNED — Having given up resistance; accepting what cannot be changed.

RESTLESS — Unable to settle; needing to move without knowing where.

SAD — Lowered by loss or absence; the mood of grief in milder form.

SAFE — Free of present threat; able to relax one’s guard.

SATISFIED — Settled by enough; nothing missing that the moment demands.

SCARED — Afraid in the colloquial register; fear in its everyday clothing.

SCORNFUL — Looking down on something with active dislike; mockery in the eyes.

SECLUDED — Set apart from others, often by choice or circumstance rather than rejection.

SELF-CONFIDENT — Trusting one’s own footing; ease in one’s own presence.

SELF-CONSCIOUS — Watching oneself through imagined other eyes; awareness pulled inward.

SELF-CRITICAL — Turning judgment on oneself; the inner accuser is loud.

SENSITIVE — Easily touched, for good or ill; thin-skinned to feeling.

SENTIMENTAL — Inclined to feeling shaped by memory or affection; warm with the past.

SERENE — Deeply at peace; an inner stillness that holds.

SHAKEN — Knocked from balance by something upsetting; recovery still pending.

SHOCKED — Hit by something so sudden the system pauses to register it.

SHUNNED — Deliberately turned away from by others; the door closed in your face.

SHY — Hesitant in others’ company; pulling back from contact.

SKEPTICAL — Withholding belief until satisfied; doubt as a working stance.

SLEEPY — Drifting toward sleep; consciousness softening.

SLUGGISH — Slow in body or mind, as if moving through something thicker than air.

SMUG — Pleased with oneself in a way that grates on others.

SORRY — Aware of a wrong one has done, and wishing to acknowledge it.

SPITEFUL — Wanting to harm someone for the sake of hurting them.

STIMULATED — Awakened to interest; the mind or senses lit.

STRESSED — Carrying more pressure than one’s reserves can absorb.

STUBBORN — Refusing to give way; holding one’s ground past the point of reason.

STUCK — Unable to move forward, in mind or in life.

SUBMISSIVE — Yielding to another’s will or direction.

SULLEN — Silently bad-tempered; resentment held inward.

SURPRISED — Caught by something unexpected; the system briefly readjusting.

SUSPICIOUS — Inclined to mistrust; sensing something not right.

SYMPATHETIC — Sharing in another’s feeling, especially pain; warmth turned toward them.

TENSE — Strung tight in body or mind; ready for something to give.

TERRIFIED — Fear at its strongest; the body wanting to flee.

THANKFUL — Aware of having received; gratitude in immediate form.

THRILLED — Excited at high volume; pleasure spiking.

TIMID — Easily frightened; small in presence by habit.

TIRED — Worn from use; the body asking for rest.

TORMENTED — Suffering repeatedly from the same wound; pain that does not finish.

TRAPPED — Unable to escape a situation; the walls closing in.

TRIUMPHANT — Lifted by victory; success made visible.

TROUBLED — Carrying a worry one cannot easily put down.

UNEASY — Sensing something off, without yet being able to name it.

UNHAPPY — Not happy; the state of mild ongoing dissatisfaction.

UNNERVED — Knocked from one’s footing by something disquieting.

UNSETTLED — Inner balance disturbed; nothing quite resting.

UPSET — Disturbed in feeling, often through hurt or frustration.

VALIANT — Brave with care; standing for something at one’s own cost.

VENGEFUL — Wanting to repay a wrong with harm; the desire to even the score.

VIBRANT — Alive with energy; visibly full of life.

VIGILANT — Watchful and ready; eyes on what might happen.

VINDICTIVE — Acting to harm someone in return for a wrong; sustained vengefulness.

VULNERABLE — Open to being hurt; defenses down.

WEARY — Tired past simple fatigue; the spirit also worn.

WELCOMING — Open in posture toward newcomers; the door held ajar.

WORN OUT — Used up; nothing left to give.

WORRIED — Troubled by what might happen; the mind circling a possible problem.

WORTHLESS — Feeling oneself to be of no value; the floor of self-esteem.

Unified Specification, Version 1.1.