ruled now
Manifest
The list of files a person has chosen to send: name, size, fingerprint, status — declared before they sail.
skaists.dev
the estate's naval data language
Law of the Sea
Every data flow on the estate is named in the language of the sea.
Founder ruling, 2026-09-21: “hold hard to naval terms with data flow and management. Law of the sea.”
- A data action gets the sea's word for it when one exists. The first is manifest: a file is added to the manifest before it sails to Autonomi.
- The word must be true to its meaning at sea. A term that only sounds naval is not used.
- A stranger must still understand the page. The naval word is the name; one plain sentence beside it says what happens.
Why the sea
The sea solved the estate's problems first. A ship moves valuable cargo between strangers, across waters nobody owns, with no central authority on board. Sailors answered that with manifests, logs, watches, shared-loss rules and a duty to rescue. Those are the same answers a serverless data network needs.
Law of the Sea
the sea's words for your files
each step your files take is named after the sea, with one plain sentence beside it that says what happens.
reading the glossary…
run up the flags
each word flies its first letter · tap to hoistsolid edge = ruleddashed edge = proposed
law://sea · docs/LAW-OF-THE-SEA.md
only the founder rules a word
the three laws
glossary · in the order a file travels · tap a row
| # | term | status |
|---|
receipt
| when | what · what it gave |
|---|
open items
verify · no trust in this page needed
the whole law
The glossary — only Manifest is ruled
A first draft of the working vocabulary, in the order a file travels. Only manifest is ruled; every other row is proposed.
Manifest ruled
at sea The list of everything the ship carries, declared before sailing
on the estate The list of files a person has chosen to send: name, size, fingerprint, status
Cargo proposed
at sea The goods being carried
on the estate The files themselves
Hold proposed
at sea The space below decks where cargo waits and rides
on the estate Local staging on the person's own device, before anything leaves
Bill of lading proposed
at sea The receipt a carrier gives for cargo taken aboard, stating what and for whom
on the estate The price quote and payment plan a person sees before paying
Clearance proposed
at sea Permission from the port to sail
on the estate The person's own authorization and spending ceiling
Pilot proposed
at sea The local expert who guides a ship through a harbor, never its owner
on the estate The bridge program: it prepares the passage and holds no keys
Make sail proposed
at sea Departure
on the estate The upload, once the wallet has paid
Log proposed
at sea The ship's written record, kept every watch, never erased
on the estate The receipt trail: address, chunks, amount paid, time
Port of call proposed
at sea Where cargo is delivered
on the estate The network a file lands on: Autonomi, Arweave, Hive, local
Landfall proposed
at sea First sight of the destination
on the estate The datamap address coming back
Sounding proposed
at sea Measuring the depth before moving forward
on the estate Verify by downloading and comparing the fingerprint
Watch proposed
at sea The crew on duty, in rotation, so the ship is never unattended
on the estate Seats on shift; checks that run on every change
Muster proposed
at sea Calling the roll to confirm everyone is accounted for
on the estate The registry count: every surface present and numbered
Colors proposed
at sea The flag that says whose ship this is
on the estate Signed identity on a message or commit
Ballast proposed
at sea Weight carried for stability, not for sale
on the estate Redundant copies kept so data survives
Jettison proposed
at sea Throwing cargo overboard to save the ship
on the estate Deleting what can be deleted; never possible for permanent public data
General average proposed
at sea All parties share the loss when cargo is jettisoned to save the voyage
on the estate Shared cost and shared loss across the hive, never one member alone
Salvage proposed
at sea Recovering a ship or cargo in peril
on the estate Resuming a paid but unfinished upload without paying twice
Dry dock proposed
at sea Out of the water for repair
on the estate A surface taken offline to be fixed
Shakedown proposed
at sea A new ship's first trial run
on the estate Tests against mocks before anything real is spent
Commission proposed
at sea A ship formally enters service
on the estate A surface goes live, proven at its public address
Sick bay proposed
at sea Where the corpsman treats the crew
on the estate Bug diagnosis and repair
Ten thousand years of sailors
People have crossed open water for more than ten thousand years, and nearly every rule the estate needs was written by them first. Dates below are approximate and written from general knowledge, not from sources opened for this draft; each row is to be checked against a source.
About 11,000 BCE
Obsidian from the island of Melos reaches mainland Greece, so people were already crossing open Aegean water
Proof that seafaring is older than farming, writing or the city
About 8000 BCE
The Pesse canoe, a dugout found in the Netherlands, the oldest known boat
The first surviving hull
About 5000 BCE
Reed boats sealed with bitumen sail the Persian Gulf
Trade by sea between early settlements
About 3000 BCE onward
Austronesian voyagers spread from Taiwan across the Pacific and Indian oceans
Wayfinding by stars, swells and birds, with no instruments
About 2500 BCE
The Khufu ship is buried beside the Great Pyramid
Plank-built ships made to last for eternity
About 1300 BCE
The Uluburun ship sinks off Turkey carrying copper, tin, glass and ivory from many lands
The oldest mixed cargo we can still inventory: a manifest on the seabed
About 1200 to 300 BCE
Phoenician traders work the whole Mediterranean and pass the alphabet along their routes
Trade networks that carried writing itself
About 800 BCE onward
The Rhodian sea law: cargo thrown overboard to save a ship is a loss shared by all
General average, still in force today
About 1000 CE
Norse sailors reach North America
Open-ocean crossing in the North Atlantic
About 1100 to 1300 CE
Polynesian voyagers settle Hawaii, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa
The largest settlement by sea in human history
12th to 14th century
The Rolls of Oleron and the Consolato del Mare set out the rights and duties of masters and crews
Written law of the sea, carried from port to port
1405 to 1433
Zheng He's treasure fleets sail from China to East Africa
Fleet logistics on a scale Europe would not match for centuries
1747
James Lind's trial aboard HMS Salisbury shows citrus treats scurvy
Often called the first controlled clinical trial, run at sea by a ship's surgeon
1760s
John Harrison's chronometer solves longitude
A ship can know where it is
1898
The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established on 17 June
The corpsman becomes a rating of his own
1982
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is signed
The high seas are held in common and belong to no one state
The founder in the line
The founder joined that line himself: he served as a United States Navy and Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman. He joined the Navy at 17 and left for his first boot camp in 1995. That is what he shares publicly; units, stations and operations stay out of this document.
A Hospital Corpsman is the sailor who keeps the crew alive. A Fleet Marine Force corpsman does it ashore with the Marines, who call him "Doc" and call "Corpsman up" when someone is hit. The rating descends from the ship's surgeons and loblolly boys of the age of sail, the same tradition that produced Lind's scurvy trial.
The estate already runs on his two trades. The operating room gives it seats, a surgical team and S.O.A.P. notes for every bug. The ship gives it the manifest, the log and the watch. The corpsman is where the two meet: one person, trained to act alone, far from any hospital, responsible for everyone aboard.
That is the posture the estate asks of every seat. Treat what is in front of you, write it in the log, and never leave a shipmate behind.
Open items
- Rule the glossary rows beyond manifest, or strike any that read wrong to a sailor.
- Check every date in the history table against a source.
- Once ruled, the seats rename data actions on My Data and MY SPACE to match, in all 29 languages.