# guilt (act-scoped)

a self-model reporting one past act as outside the window rather than the whole self, which is why it stops when the act is repaired.

- Computed level: L19 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emotional

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self.personal), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [report](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-report.information), [past](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-past.temporal), [act](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-act.deed), [outside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-outside.spatial), [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [whole](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whole.complete), [stop](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-stop.action), [repair](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-repair.restore), [rather](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-rather.comparative)

**Through:** The self-model scopes its negative report to a single completed act rather than to itself, so the report has a repair condition: fixing what the act broke terminates the signal.

**Novel properties:**
- act-scoped negative report
- repair-terminated signal
- self-sparing accountability

## Examples
- A debt repaid with an apology can end the matter between friends in a way no apology ends humiliation. *(society)*
- Restorative justice closes a case when the offender repairs what the act broke, which punishment alone does not do. *(institutions)*
- A postmortem that names the faulty deploy and reverts it lets the engineer sleep, where a review of the engineer would not. *(engineering)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-guilt.act-scoped*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-guilt.act-scoped.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*