Counts differ because each database indexes a different set of publications. We treat OpenAlex as the canonical count; Google Scholar is not shown (no API, and crawling it violates its ToS).
Preamble This document is the canonical lexicon for terms used across The Vanishing Point constellation. It is the authoritative definitional source, including but not limited to: Digital Child; Dispatches; Book. Where The Vanishing Point constellation uses a term, the definition lives here. It is sovereign in the sense that it carries its own definitional authority: an artifact in the constellation defers to this lexicon for the meaning of a term, and this lexicon defers to no other document. How to read an entry. Each entry opens with its term and a type (Concept, Policy, or Technology). The passage in quotation marks is the source definition, followed by its source; a source given as "D.B. Oerther, author" is an original definition written for this lexicon. The paragraph beginning "Core entry" is the lexicon's own commentary, which situates the term within the constellation. The "Related" line lists the other entries this one is connected to; these connections are the edges of the lexicon's knowledge graph, and they run in both directions. An entry marked "Withheld" is deliberately left open pending separate publication; the lexicon states what it commits to about the term and nothing more. Where the lexicon names a term that has no entry, the term is either in ordinary or scholarly use and can be found by a normal search, or it is a frontier of the lexicon not yet written; the absence of an entry is not an omission of the definition. Disclosure of AI Use In keeping with the lexicon's own Transparency, Accountability, and Verifiability framework, the author discloses the following. Artificial intelligence was used in the preparation of this document. Platform: Claude (Anthropic), model Claude Fable 5.1, October 2026. Use: formatting of entries, alphabetization, assignment of entry types, compilation of the Related lines that record the lexicon's edges, and drafting of the rights statement, the citation line, the sentence defining "sovereign," and the "How to read an entry" paragraph, each reviewed and edited by the author. All source definitions, sources, and "Core entry" commentary are the author's own work, authored and approved by the author; where artificial intelligence assisted the author in drafting or revising an entry, the author directed, reviewed, and approved the resulting text. The author reviewed every entry and retains full responsibility for the content of this document. Each source definition can be verified against the source cited beneath it. Rights: (c) 2026 Daniel B. Oerther. All rights reserved. Quotation and paraphrase with citation are welcome, as for any published work. Reproduction of entries in full, or of the lexicon in whole or in part, requires permission from the author. This version contains 56 entries. The same text is published at https://thevanishingpoint.ai/digital-child/ Cite as: Oerther, D.B. (2026). The Vanishing Point - Sovereign Lexicon (Version 1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23103001
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