# Control Systems

## Purpose

Control is traced through observation, access, classification, incentives, enclosure, attention, identity, and infrastructure. Counter-lineages preserve agency and distributed resilience. This chapter is an index and a method: it shows how to explore the subject without collapsing documented history, current research, reported experience, fiction, community belief, and Oracle synthesis into one truth claim.

## Reading Method

1. **Locate the Tile.** Read its Primary Class to learn what kind of thing it is, then its Inquiry Domains to learn which questions it can illuminate.
2. **Name the material mode.** A science-fiction, mythology, political-mythology, experiential-report, or established-science label identifies context; it is not a score of spiritual or personal importance.
3. **Read claims layer by layer.** Begin with the literal-and-empirical layer, then the cultural-and-historical layer, and only then the symbolic-and-divinatory layer. An evidence state applies to one bounded claim, not to the Tile as a whole.
4. **Open the sources.** A concept-specific citation can support a history or bounded claim. A class-level contextual citation only locates the Tile in a wider field. Neither one certifies every interpretation.
5. **Follow typed edges.** Compare the exact verb and rationale. “Fictionalizes,” “opposes,” “echoes,” and “investigated-by” are not interchangeable. A resemblance edge is not proof of historical influence.
6. **Integrate through action.** Use Gift, Shadow, Threshold, and the integration practice to identify one grounded choice that remains useful even if a favored ontology is wrong.

## Worked Comparison

1. **Pattern** is a Forces Tile centered on Power & Control. Its literal layer is **not-applicable**; its symbolic question is: “Is this pattern explanatory, testable, or simply satisfying?”
2. **Complexity** is a Forces Tile centered on Power & Control. Its literal layer is **well-established**; its symbolic question is: “Who gains agency through many interdependent causes placed within power & control, who carries risk, and who can revise the arrangement? Answer by testing how many interdependent causes placed within power & control changes the conditions under which every actor chooses against authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave.”
3. **Entropy** is a Forces Tile centered on Power & Control. Its literal layer is **well-established**; its symbolic question is: “What permission or obligation changes if irreversible dispersal placed within power & control becomes decisive? Answer by testing how irreversible dispersal placed within power & control changes the conditions under which every actor chooses against authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave.”

Compare these examples by asking what changes when the class, evidence state, or edge verb changes. Do not treat the most vivid Tile as the most factual. When a reading crosses into health, identity, conspiracy, or current politics, show the card’s safety flags and preserve an alternate explanation.

## System Links

- [How to Use](HOW-TO-USE.md) for reference, reading, and game workflows.
- [Graph](GRAPH.md) for edge semantics and provenance.
- [Divination](DIVINATION.md) for reflective reading rules.
- [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md) for Classes, Domains, Modes, and Evidence States.
- [Source Registry](../research/SOURCE-REGISTRY.md) for source tiers, scope, and rights.

## Canonical Tiles

- [Pattern](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-pattern.md) — Structure discovered, inherited, or imposed upon uncertain events.
- [Complexity](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-complexity.md) — What makes Complexity consequential is the meeting of many interdependent causes placed within power & control with authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Entropy](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-entropy.md) — The working core of Entropy is irreversible dispersal placed within power & control: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. established findings do not automatically support later extraordinary extensions.
- [Feedback](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-feedback.md) — What makes Feedback consequential is the meeting of an outcome returning as an input placed within power & control with authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Butterfly Effect](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-butterfly-effect.md) — the butterfly motif meeting the effect motif gives Butterfly Effect its distinctive charge. Read it through authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave, with mechanism, measurement, uncertainty, and replication kept visible.
- [Apophenia](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-apophenia.md) — The perception of meaningful connections among unrelated or weakly related data.
- [Certainty](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-certainty.md) — At the center of Certainty is closure around a model placed within power & control. The card treats that tension as a recurrent pressure or organizing dynamic, bounded by the synthesis must never masquerade as inherited doctrine or discovered fact.
- [Fear](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-fear.md) — threat-shaped attention placed within power & control is the engine beneath Fear. As a recurrent pressure or organizing dynamic, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Extraction](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-extraction.md) — Extraction offers an instrument for reading value removed from a host placed within power & control. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- [Control](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-control.md) — The Oracle places Control where constrained possibility placed within power & control affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a recurrent pressure or organizing dynamic with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Great Filter](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-great-filter.md) — A proposed barrier that prevents most life from becoming long-lived, spacefaring civilization.
- [Deep Underground Military Base](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-deep-underground-military-base.md) — Deep Underground Military Base frames the deep motif, the underground motif, and the military motif acting together as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is institutions, material interests, rhetoric, and affected communities.
- [Digital Immortality](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-digital-immortality.md) — Digital Immortality names a threshold where identity or value mediated by computation meeting the immortality motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a physically or conceptually motivated extrapolation distinct from symbolic use.
- [Designer Child](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-designer-child.md) — Designer Child frames the designer motif meeting the child motif as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is assumptions, feasibility constraints, and discriminating tests.
- [Quantified Self](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-quantified-self.md) — Read Quantified Self as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing shaped by the quantified motif meeting the self motif. The useful inquiry is not belief alone, but what identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- [Programmable Matter](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-programmable-matter.md) — Programmable Matter frames the programmable motif meeting physical substance and mass-energy as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is assumptions, feasibility constraints, and discriminating tests.
- [Black Goo](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-black-goo.md) — Adaptive mirror-black intelligence entering biological or technological systems in science fiction and fringe lore.
- [Alignment Protocol](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-alignment-protocol.md) — Alignment Protocol brings capability constrained by chosen values meeting the protocol motif into focus. It operates as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing and asks how authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave alter practical choice.
- [Quantum Entanglement](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-quantum-entanglement.md) — Within the Oracle, Quantum Entanglement holds together physical behavior at fundamental scales meeting correlation irreducible to classical separation and authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Terraforming](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-terraforming.md) — Read Terraforming as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing shaped by the terraforming motif placed within power & control. The useful inquiry is not belief alone, but what identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- [Artificial Gravity](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-artificial-gravity.md) — Artificial Gravity brings the artificial motif meeting the gravity motif into focus. It operates as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing and asks how authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave alter practical choice.
- [Galactic Empire](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-galactic-empire.md) — Centralized rule projected across worlds through military, administrative, and symbolic scale.
- [The Cabal](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-the-cabal.md) — The Cabal is a way of encountering secret coordination as explanatory enemy placed within power & control. Its Oracle use joins a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims to the question of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave.
- [Shadow Government](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-shadow-government.md) — Shadow Government gathers a field around the shadow motif meeting the government motif. Its deeper subject is coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful.
- [Illuminati](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-illuminati.md) — At the center of Illuminati is the illuminati motif placed within power & control. The card treats that tension as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims, bounded by documenting a narrative does not validate its hidden-cause allegations.
- [Great Houses](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-great-houses.md) — What makes Great Houses consequential is the meeting of civilizational scale meeting the houses motif with authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Starfleet](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-starfleet.md) — The working core of Starfleet is the starfleet motif placed within power & control: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Secret Space Fleet](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-secret-space-fleet.md) — Secret Space Fleet brings knowledge controlled through access, the space motif, and the fleet motif acting together into focus. It operates as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims and asks how authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave alter practical choice.
- [Solar Warden](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-solar-warden.md) — The working core of Solar Warden is the solar motif meeting the warden motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. the synthesis must never masquerade as inherited doctrine or discovered fact.
- [Megacorporation](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-megacorporation.md) — The working core of Megacorporation is the megacorporation motif placed within power & control: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. the synthesis must never masquerade as inherited doctrine or discovered fact.
- [Algorithmic Technocracy](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-algorithmic-technocracy.md) — Algorithmic Technocracy names a threshold where the algorithmic motif meeting expertise converted into rule changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a political story that organizes identity and threat distinct from symbolic use.
- [Preservation Order](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-preservation-order.md) — The Oracle places Preservation Order where the preservation motif meeting the order motif affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Distributed Network](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-distributed-network.md) — Distributed Network brings the distributed motif meeting the network motif into focus. It operates as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims and asks how authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave alter practical choice.
- [Emergent Swarm](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-emergent-swarm.md) — Emergent Swarm frames the emergent motif meeting the swarm motif as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is transparent analogy, declared invention, and practical usefulness.
- [Guardians](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-guardians.md) — Read Guardians as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims shaped by the guardians motif placed within power & control. The useful inquiry is not belief alone, but what identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- [Military-Industrial Complex](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-military-industrial-complex.md) — Seen closely, Military-Industrial Complex is about the military motif, the industrial motif, and the complex motif acting together under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Secret Space Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-secret-space-program.md) — A modern lore complex describing hidden off-world fleets, bases, treaties, labor, and technology.
- [Philadelphia Experiment](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-philadelphia-experiment.md) — A legend of naval invisibility, teleportation, and bodies fused with a machine.
- [Operation Highjump](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-operation-highjump.md) — Operation Highjump names a threshold where the operation motif meeting the highjump motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a political story that organizes identity and threat distinct from symbolic use.
- [Crash Retrieval Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-crash-retrieval-program.md) — Crash Retrieval Program concentrates the crash motif meeting the retrieval motif into a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation. Its value lies in examining authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Reverse Engineering Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-reverse-engineering-program.md) — the reverse motif meeting the engineering motif is the engine beneath Reverse Engineering Program. As a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Special Access Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-special-access-program.md) — the special motif meeting practical ability to reach, use, and benefit from a resource is the engine beneath Special Access Program. As a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Waived SAP](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-waived-sap.md) — Within the Oracle, Waived SAP holds together the waived motif meeting the sap motif and authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Predictive Programming](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-predictive-programming.md) — the predictive motif meeting the programming motif gives Predictive Programming its distinctive charge. Read it through authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave, with claim-level sourcing, incentive analysis, falsifiability, and harm review kept visible.
- [Information Operation](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-information-operation.md) — The working core of Information Operation is the information motif meeting the operation motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. the synthesis must never masquerade as inherited doctrine or discovered fact.
- [Cognitive Warfare](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-cognitive-warfare.md) — Cognitive Warfare is a way of encountering attention and interpretation as terrain meeting the warfare motif. Its Oracle use joins a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation to the question of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave.
- [Narrative Warfare](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-narrative-warfare.md) — Seen closely, Narrative Warfare is about causal meaning carried by story meeting the warfare motif under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Patent Secrecy](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-patent-secrecy.md) — The Oracle places Patent Secrecy where the patent motif meeting the secrecy motif affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Eugenics Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-eugenics-program.md) — Within the Oracle, Eugenics Program holds together the eugenics motif placed within power & control and authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Breeding Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-breeding-program.md) — Breeding Program concentrates the breeding motif placed within power & control into a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation. Its value lies in examining authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Hybridization Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-hybridization-program.md) — At the center of Hybridization Program is the hybridization motif placed within power & control. The card treats that tension as a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation, bounded by secrecy and repetition do not independently prove extraordinary causation.
- [Terraforming Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-terraforming-program.md) — Terraforming Program brings the terraforming motif placed within power & control into focus. It operates as a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation and asks how authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave alter practical choice.
- [Ascension Program](../cards/programs/sfoc-programs-ascension-program.md) — The Oracle places Ascension Program where transformation toward a higher state placed within power & control affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a deliberate mission, project, protocol, or coordinated operation with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Panopticon](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-panopticon.md) — Control produced by uncertainty about whether observation is occurring.
- [Control Grid](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-control-grid.md) — Control Grid offers an instrument for reading constrained possibility meeting the grid motif. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- [Digital ID](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-digital-id.md) — Digital ID gathers a field around identity or value mediated by computation meeting the id motif. Its deeper subject is a capability redistributes power long before its interface appears neutral.
- [Social Credit](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-social-credit.md) — Social Credit names a threshold where the social motif meeting the credit motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a political story that organizes identity and threat distinct from symbolic use.
- [Central Bank Digital Currency](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-central-bank-digital-currency.md) — The Oracle places Central Bank Digital Currency where the central motif, the bank motif, and identity or value mediated by computation acting together affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Algorithmic Governance](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-algorithmic-governance.md) — Algorithmic Governance offers an instrument for reading the algorithmic motif meeting the governance motif. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to trace inputs, transformation, outputs, energy, operators, error states, ownership, and shutdown.
- [Smart Prison](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-smart-prison.md) — What makes Smart Prison consequential is the meeting of the smart motif meeting enclosure maintained by asymmetrical power with mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Geofence](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-geofence.md) — Geofence names a threshold where the geofence motif placed within civilization & ecology changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps an explicit Oracle synthesis distinct from symbolic use.
- [Attention Economy](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-attention-economy.md) — Attention Economy is a way of encountering the attention motif meeting rules for allocating value and obligation. Its Oracle use joins a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value to the question of attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness.
- [Surveillance Capitalism](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism.md) — Seen closely, Surveillance Capitalism is about observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Reputation Economy](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-reputation-economy.md) — Reputation Economy is a way of encountering the reputation motif meeting rules for allocating value and obligation. Its Oracle use joins a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value to the question of shared survival, place, stewardship, access, feedback, and unequal exposure to risk.
- [Gift Economy](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-gift-economy.md) — Within the Oracle, Gift Economy holds together the gift motif meeting rules for allocating value and obligation and shared survival, place, stewardship, access, feedback, and unequal exposure to risk. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Energy Economy](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-energy-economy.md) — Energy Economy gathers a field around capacity to produce change meeting rules for allocating value and obligation. Its deeper subject is a capability redistributes power long before its interface appears neutral.
- [Resource Monopoly](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-resource-monopoly.md) — the resource motif meeting the monopoly motif is the engine beneath Resource Monopoly. As a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Post-Scarcity](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-post-scarcity.md) — The Oracle places Post-Scarcity where the post motif meeting a binding limit affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Walkability](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-walkability.md) — A built-environment condition in which people can reach daily needs safely, comfortably, and practically on foot.
- [Galactic Market](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-galactic-market.md) — Within the Oracle, Galactic Market holds together the galactic motif meeting the market motif and shared survival, place, stewardship, access, feedback, and unequal exposure to risk. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Neighborhood Access](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-neighborhood-access.md) — A proximity system that brings essential services, public space, work, care, and connection within practical reach of residents.
- [Loosh Harvest](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-loosh-harvest.md) — A narrative of sustained systems extracting value from emotion, conflict, or suffering.
- [Loosh Farm](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-loosh-farm.md) — A system interpreted as benefiting from sustained emotional intensity, fear, or suffering.
- [Prime Directive](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-prime-directive.md) — A fictional non-interference rule that protects developing societies from the power of more capable visitors.
- [The Matrix](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-the-matrix.md) — The invisible social, computational, or ideological environment mistaken for reality itself.
- [Laboratory System](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-laboratory-system.md) — Laboratory System names a threshold where the laboratory motif placed within civilization & ecology changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps an explicit Oracle synthesis distinct from symbolic use.
- [Zoo System](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-zoo-system.md) — Within the Oracle, Zoo System holds together the zoo motif placed within technology & infrastructure and mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Prison System](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-prison-system.md) — At the center of Prison System is enclosure maintained by asymmetrical power placed within power & control. The card treats that tension as a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value, bounded by the synthesis must never masquerade as inherited doctrine or discovered fact.
- [Quarantine System](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-quarantine-system.md) — the quarantine motif placed within civilization & ecology gives Quarantine System its distinctive charge. Read it through shared survival, place, stewardship, access, feedback, and unequal exposure to risk, with transparent analogy, declared invention, and practical usefulness kept visible.
- [Containment System](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-containment-system.md) — Within the Oracle, Containment System holds together the containment motif placed within technology & infrastructure and mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
