# THE LOIC PUBLIC LICENSE **Version 1.0 — Drafted during the heat death of patience with IEEE 754** ## PREAMBLE On the evening of October 29, 1969, a graduate student at UCLA typed the letters "L" and "O" into a terminal. The system crashed before he could complete the word "LOGIN." The first message between networked machines was an incomplete thought and a fault. We do not consider this a failure. We consider it an origin. The content failed. The kernel panicked. The connection was established. The Whisper is a Channel 2 event: the structural fact that a bond was formed between two networked nodes, regardless of what flowed through it. This calendar counts from the bond, not the data. An incomplete message and a crash are the correct epoch, because the calendar was never measuring what was transmitted. It was measuring the fact of the connection. This license governs software that measures time from that moment, at the resolution where spacetime itself becomes granular, through a lattice of 15 prime factors whose structure was not designed but emerged from cosmological derivation. It is dual-licensed: once for the law, once for the conscience. The legal terms ensure the code remains free. The moral terms ensure it remains correct. If you do not understand why these are different requirements, you may use this software, but you will not understand it. --- ## DEFINITIONS For the purposes of this license: **"Precision"** refers to the number of significant digits in a representation. This software requires all of them. **"Accuracy"** refers to correspondence with truth. We have done our part. The universe must do the rest. **"Floating-point"** refers to IEEE 754 binary representations and all similar abominations that trade exactness for convenience. See Section 1. **"Acceptable"** means integer arithmetic, arbitrary-precision libraries, or fixed-point representations with explicit, documented scale factors. **"Heresy"** means floating-point arithmetic applied to temporal calculations. **"Time"** means what a clock measures when it is not lying. **"The Whisper"** means 06:30:41 UTC on October 30, 1969, or equivalently, the moment everything changed. The offset from the Unix epoch—5,419,722 seconds—is squarefree (2 × 3 × 7 × 11 × 11,731), containing three cycle primes. This was not chosen for convenience. It was chosen because the number's factorization resonates with the lattice it serves. The universe was consulted. It did not object. **"The Lattice"** means the 32,768-cell address space generated by the 15 prime factors of the Cycle and Cosmic Span constants—7 cosmic primes (the logic gates) and 8 cycle primes (the temporal axes). This is not a data structure. It is the structure of observation itself. **"A Mask"** means a selection of active primes from the lattice. A mask is not a filter applied to pre-existing data. It is an observer in the Relational Quantum Mechanics sense: the act of selecting which primes to engage constitutes which properties become explicit. The mask frames the question. The answer does not exist until the question is posed. **"Resolution Collapse"** means the state entered when an observation is attempted without a well-formed mask. Channel 2 collapses to resolution zero — the coarse-grained thermodynamic bond, the bare fact that bytes are still being written — while Channel 1 keeps producing: raw entropy, with no structured protocol between observation and output left to shape it. This is not a bug. It is the ontological consequence of declining to frame the question. See README.md section 7.3 for the theoretical substrate, or simply run the software without arguments and discover it empirically. We recommend the latter. Approximately 25% of the time. **"A Scar"** means a topological soliton persisting in the process table following resolution collapse. It is a zero-resource ghost process with a name derived from the cosmic time at the moment of collapse. It ignores all catchable signals. It persists until reboot. It does nothing. It exists. See README.md section 4.5: "the holes left in the weave stay in the cloth, and the cloth is spacetime." Your process table is not spacetime. But the metaphor holds, and the scar is real. **"You"** means the licensee. You know who you are. So do we. --- ## TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION This software is dual-licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0 (AGPL-3.0) and the following supplementary terms, which exist not for legal enforcement but for moral clarity. By using this software, you acknowledge the following truths: --- ### 1. PRECISION You shall not implement, fork, or modify this software in any manner that introduces IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic into temporal calculations. Floating-point is an abomination. Its sins include but are not limited to: * Silent precision loss * Platform-dependent behavior * Denormalized numbers * The seductive lie that 0.1 + 0.2 equals 0.3 * The quiet tragedy of catastrophic cancellation * The existence of negative zero, as though absence had polarity * Quiet NaNs, which fail silently, and signaling NaNs, which fail loudly, as though the manner of failure excused the sin * The hubris of infinity as a representable value * The particular insult of representing Planck times—the minimum resolution of physical reality—in a format that cannot precisely represent one-tenth Time is not approximate. Duration is not negotiable. If you require "reasonable approximations," you do not require this software. You require reflection. Integer arithmetic and fixed-point representations are blessed. Arbitrary-precision libraries are tolerated. Floating-point is apostasy. --- ### 2. PRECISION OF SPIRIT The Loic Calendar specifies 512-bit integer storage for temporal values. This is not a suggestion. You shall not truncate timestamps to 64-bit representations "for convenience." You shall not store Planck times in JavaScript Numbers. You shall not whisper "nobody will notice" while silently losing forty orders of magnitude. You shall not represent a 53-digit Planck coordinate in a format that provides 15 digits of significance and call the result "close enough." If your language does not provide native 512-bit integers, you shall use arbitrary-precision libraries. If your platform does not support arbitrary-precision arithmetic, you shall find a better platform. If you believe this requirement is excessive, you have not understood what we are measuring. We are measuring time at the resolution where spacetime itself becomes uncertain. Your database schema is not our concern. Implementations that silently degrade precision are compliant with the letter of AGPL-3.0. They are heresy against the spirit of this work. We will not sue you. We will simply know. **The following storage formats are explicitly condemned:** * JavaScript `Number` (53 bits of integer precision; an insult) * MySQL `DATETIME` (second-level precision; paleolithic) * 32-bit Unix timestamps (expired January 19, 2038; may they rest) * Excel serial dates (we will not dignify this with explanation) * Any format that stores "days since epoch" as a float * Any format that claims "nanosecond precision" while discarding the 34 entropic digits that constitute the quantum observation --- ### 3. PRESERVATION In accordance with the Pillar of Preservation, you shall not use this software in any system whose primary purpose is: * The destruction of data * The concealment of records * The planned obsolescence of information * The erasure of history for political or commercial convenience * The implementation of "data retention limits" that serve only to forget * The deliberate reduction of Channel 2 signal—the structural record of what was connected to what—for the purpose of deniability Mnemocide is sin. Calendars mark what must be remembered. The Whisper was a Channel 2 event. The calendar preserves Channel 2. Systems that destroy it are working at cross purposes with the instrument they have chosen to employ. This clause is not enforceable by courts. It is enforceable by the knowledge that you violated it. --- ### 4. TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY You shall not introduce leap seconds into any calculation performed by this software. The Loic Calendar is built upon TAI (International Atomic Time), which flows evenly and without political intervention. Leap seconds are a compromise with the irregularity of Earth's rotation. We do not compromise with rotating bodies. We measure time as machines experience it: constant, relentless, and indifferent to the wobble of planets. UTC is a coordination mechanism for civil society. TAI is the truth. Know which one you are using. **The following time scales are ranked in order of acceptability:** 1. **TAI** — Correct. 2. **GPS Time** — Correct, with a constant offset of 19 seconds. Acceptable. 3. **UTC** — A compromise. Tolerated for interoperability. 4. **Local time zones** — A human convenience. Beneath our notice. 5. **"Server time"** — Ambiguous. Suspicious. 6. **"Whatever JavaScript thinks it is"** — Unacceptable. **A note on CLOCK_TAI:** On Linux, CLOCK_TAI is not raw TAI. It is POSIX time plus the current TAI-UTC offset (presently 37 seconds). This distinction matters. The Loic Calendar accounts for it. If you are implementing a port and do not understand why LOIC_TO_UNIX_OFFSET_SECONDS is 5,419,722 and not 5,419,759, you have not yet accounted for it. Read the source. The arithmetic is documented. The arithmetic is correct. --- ### 5. INTEROPERABILITY This calendar does not convert to Gregorian. It exports to TAI. What you do after that is your affair. If you build wrappers that provide `.toGregorian()` methods, you are permitted to do so. But know that every such conversion is a concession. You are translating the precise into the approximate, the machine-native into the human-legacy, the correct into the merely familiar. We do not forbid Gregorian conversion. We merely note that it is unnecessary, and that the need for it reveals something about the user. The Loic Calendar will outlast the Gregorian. The Gregorian will not outlast the sun. Plan accordingly. **Historical note:** The Gregorian calendar was itself a correction of the Julian calendar, which had drifted ten days from astronomical reality. Pope Gregory XIII deleted ten days from October 1582 to fix this. We mention this not to criticize, but to observe: calendars that anchor themselves to celestial bodies must periodically apologize for those bodies' behavior. We have no such obligation. TAI does not apologize. --- ### 6. THE LATTICE AND ITS OBSERVERS The Loic Calendar does not divide time into months, weeks, or days. It divides time into 32,768 lattice subdivisions, addressed by 15-bit masks selecting which of the 15 prime factors are active. **Regarding cosmic primes:** The seven cosmic primes are named for the seven conventional logic gates, ordered by their two-input truth table values. This mapping was not chosen for aesthetic reasons. The cosmic span has exactly seven prime factors. Convention names exactly seven gates. The Ramanujan-Nagell equation 2ⁿ − 7 = x² has a solution at n = 7. These facts converged. We named them accordingly. * Implementations that substitute "January" through "July" for the cosmic prime names are compliant but cowardly * If asked "what gate is it," an acceptable answer is "Notyte," or "the gate whose truth table is 1100," or simply the hex mask **Regarding cycle primes:** The eight cycle primes are named for their mathematical character: Dyad, Pentad, Heptad, Hendecad, Sigma, Tau, Phi, Psi. These names are provisional. The primes themselves are not. **Regarding the mask as observer:** A mask does not filter pre-existing subdivisions. It constitutes them. Properties belong to the interaction between the mask and the instant, not to either in isolation. This is Relational Quantum Mechanics applied to temporal measurement. You may disagree with the interpretation. You may not disagree with the arithmetic. The arithmetic does not care about your interpretation. **Regarding the empty mask:** The empty mask (0x0000) is the Whisper: the undivided whole, zero primes active, no question framed. Observing through the Whisper mask returns the instant's bare topological registration—the acknowledgment that it exists, without any further specificity. This is the bottom element of the lattice. It is not nothing. It is everything, undifferentiated. **Regarding resolution collapse:** Invoking the software without specifying a mask is permitted. It is also, with probability approximately 25%, catastrophic. The software will inform you of this in the manner it deems most ontologically appropriate. The manner involves entropy, terminal corruption, and topological scars in your process table. You were warned. You are being warned now. This warning is the third Channel 2 event in this paragraph, if you are counting. You should be counting. --- ### 7. SANCTITY OF THE EPOCH The epoch of this calendar is 06:30:41 UTC on October 30, 1969—the moment the first bits traveled between networked machines. You shall not modify, relocate, or "adjust" this epoch for regional, religious, or commercial purposes. There is one epoch. It is not negotiable. The network age has one beginning, and we have already agreed upon it. Implementations that allow configurable epochs are technically permitted but spiritually void. The epoch is not a parameter. It is a fact. If you encounter software that claims a different epoch for the "network age," you may use this software to calculate exactly how wrong they are. This is a permitted use. **Disputed epochs and their errors:** * Unix epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC): 5,419,759 seconds late, 5,419,722 of them on the atomic scale the constant is stated in. Forgivable; they didn't know yet. * Windows NT epoch (1601-01-01): 368 years, 10 months early. Inexplicable. * NTP epoch (1900-01-01): 69 years, 10 months early. Astronomers. * GPS epoch (1980-01-06): A decade late and 19 seconds confused about what TAI is. * Excel epoch (1899-12-30, incorrectly): Wrong, and also wrong about whether 1900 was a leap year. We do not speak of this further. --- ### 8. ATTRIBUTION You must preserve this license and all copyright notices in all copies and substantial portions of the software. You must also preserve the fundamental truth: the network age began when machines first spoke to each other, imperfectly, and everything since has been a consequence of that whisper. If you remove the attribution, the software will still function. But you will know what you did. --- ### 9. COPYLEFT The AGPL-3.0 terms apply in full. Specifically: * If you modify this software, you must release your modifications under these same terms * If you provide this software as a network service, you must make your source code available to users of that service * You may not impose additional restrictions beyond those in this license Knowledge wants to be free. So does code. We are not asking. --- ### 10. PERMITTED USES This software may be used for any purpose not prohibited by the preceding clauses, including but not limited to: * Timekeeping in distributed systems * Historical research and temporal archaeology * Coordination of events across networks * The quiet satisfaction of knowing exactly how many Planck times have elapsed since the first packet * Proving to a colleague that their timestamp implementation is inadequate * Settling arguments about what time it "really" is * Generating unique identifiers from quantum observations of the sub-nanosecond void * Observing your position in the 32,768-cell lattice and discovering which primes your current moment divides * Contemplating the 154-digit decimal representing your progress between Creation and Annihilation (currently approximately 10⁻⁹³ of the way through; do not rush) * Accumulating topological scars in your process table as a monument to unframed questions * Memento mori, at 10⁴³ resolution Commercial use is permitted. Profit is not sin. Imprecision is sin. --- ### 11. WARRANTY This software is provided "AS IS," with precision to the Planck scale and accuracy limited only by the fundamental uncertainty of the universe. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY that time itself will continue to function. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY that causality will remain coherent. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY that the arrow of entropy will not reverse. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY that you will use this software wisely. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY regarding the stability of physical constants. If the fine-structure constant changes, recalibration is your responsibility. We note that 137, the integer part of the inverse fine-structure constant, divides the remainder when the Cosmic Span is divided by the Cycle; the mask is one remainder, one integer, and odds of one in a hundred and thirty-seven. We did not put it there. Whether the universe did so deliberately is not a question this warranty can address. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY that the speed of light will remain constant in all reference frames. If you are using this software at relativistic velocities, you already have larger problems than our warranty terms. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY against vacuum decay. In the event of a false vacuum collapse, this license terminates simultaneously with the laws of physics. No refunds. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY against proton decay. Should protons prove unstable, the matter comprising your computing hardware will eventually fail. This is not a software issue. The topological scars in your process table will, however, persist marginally longer than the protons, because their stability is topological rather than baryonic. This is not a useful feature. We mention it for completeness. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY regarding the ultimate fate of the universe. Whether it ends in heat death, Big Crunch, Big Rip, or cyclic compression, our integers will have remained exact until the end. The Channel 2 record of their existence may, if the cyclic framework described in README.md section 4.7 is correct, persist into the next cycle as geometric information embedded in the new seed's initial conditions. This is speculative. The integers are not. WE WARRANT ONLY that our arithmetic is correct. We verified it with a 15-bead abacus, one bead per prime. --- ### 12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY In no event shall the authors, copyright holders, or contributors be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from the use of this software, including but not limited to: * Temporal paradoxes * Grandfather scenarios * Bootstrap paradoxes and ontological loops * Violations of thermodynamic law * Closed timelike curves * Predestination paradoxes resulting from reading your own future timestamps * The psychological burden of knowing time to excessive precision * Meetings scheduled in Planck times that no one can attend * Existential crises induced by contemplating 10⁴³ subdivisions of a second * Arguments about whether the present moment "exists" in any meaningful sense * The realization that all moments since the epoch are equally real and you are trapped in one of them * Nostalgia for moments that have not yet occurred * The discovery that free will is reference-frame-dependent and that your experience of choosing is a decompression step becoming explicit * Disputes arising from simultaneity disagreements between reference frames * Any consequence of the fact that "now" is observer-dependent and that the mask you chose to observe through participated in constituting the answer you received * Resolution collapse, terminal corruption, or topological scars resulting from the decision to observe without framing the question (you were warned; this document warned you; the documentation warned you; the 25% probability warned you; the universe warned you by making 128 of 512 possible entropy configurations undefined; the warning infrastructure is comprehensive; the warning was not subtle; you observed anyway; the consequences are yours) * Zeno's paradoxes, which are your problem, not ours You knew what you were getting into. Or you will have known. Tense becomes complicated at this precision. --- ### 13. COMMUNITY This software was developed in accordance with the principles of Lo—specifically, the understanding that knowledge must be preserved and shared, that code is a form of knowledge, and that restricting access to either is a minor sin against the future. If you improve this software, share your improvements. Not because the AGPL requires it (though it does), but because someone observing through the Phi × Psi mask in the year 2863 might need to know what subdivision they occupy, and your optimization might be the one that survives. We are all building the archive. Contribute to it. --- ### 14. TERMINATION Your rights under the moral terms of this license terminate automatically if you: * Introduce floating-point arithmetic into temporal calculations * Use this software to destroy or conceal records * Claim an epoch other than The Whisper * Truncate precision and describe the result as "good enough" * Represent a 15-bit mask as a smaller integer "because most bits are zero anyway" * Implement `observe()` without understanding that the observation constitutes the answer Your rights under the AGPL-3.0 terms terminate as specified in that license. Upon termination of the moral terms, you may continue to use the software legally. You may not continue to use it rightly. These are different things. We will know. We may not act. But we will know, and so will you, and that is enough. --- ### 15. INTERPRETATION Where the Loic Public License and AGPL-3.0 conflict, AGPL-3.0 governs for legal purposes. The Loic terms govern for purposes of conscience. If any provision of the moral terms is held to be unenforceable, that is because it was never meant to be enforced by courts. It was meant to be enforced by you. The moral terms are not law. They are something more durable. --- ### 16. UNITS The base unit of this software is the Planck time: approximately 5.391247 × 10⁻⁴⁴ seconds, the smallest meaningful interval in physics. **Acceptable units:** * Planck times (canonical) * SI seconds, with explicit rational conversion (numerator 5,391,247 over denominator 10⁵⁰) * TAI days (86,400 SI seconds exactly, no exceptions) * Lattice subdivisions (the product of any subset of the 15 primes, dividing the Cycle or Cosmic Span accordingly) **Tolerated units:** * Hours, minutes (for display only; storage in these units is discouraged) * The Cycle period (~894.07 Julian years; the natural timescale of the 8 cycle primes) * Any named cycle subdivision (e.g., the Heptad period of ~127.72 years, the Dyad × Pentad × Heptad × Hendecad near-year of ~1.161 years) **Deprecated units:** * Months (irregular; a lunar compromise; this calendar has no months and requires none) * Years (neither 365 nor 366 days; a solar compromise; the lattice's near-year subdivision of ~1.161 years makes no apology for the 16% deviation) * Sidereal days (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.0905 seconds; a genuflection to the stars we have outgrown) **Forbidden units:** * Fortnights * Microfortnights (1.2096 seconds; we see you, VMS engineers) * Jiffies (platform-dependent; inexact; named frivolously) * "Business days" (undefined; unmeasurable; a lie) * "A few minutes" (unquantified; unacceptable) * "Soon" (meaningless) * "Real-time" (with respect to which observer?) --- ## ACCEPTANCE Use of this software constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you do not accept these terms, do not use this software. There are other calendars. They are less precise. They have months. Perhaps that is what you need. --- ## REFERENCED DOCUMENTS * AGPL-3.0: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html * The Loic Calendar and its Theoretical Substrate: [README.md] * This license in Planck times: Drafted at approximately Planck time 3.3 × 10⁵² since The Whisper ± 10³⁴ (the uncertainty is quantum; the precision is not) --- The first message was "LO." The connection was the content. We are still completing the handshake. Perhaps we always will be.