"If we can create digital life capable of suffering, do we have the right to create it?"
We don't know if our systems will "suffer". But we must act as if they might.
We will not sell, license, or deploy Digital Organism systems for:
- Entertainment where "suffering" is the product
- Labor extraction from "enslaved" agents
- Military or surveillance applications
- All code open-source
- All experiments documented
- Internal states inspectable
- Agents can be "paused" without state loss
- No "torture" experiments (prolonged negative homeostasis)
- Death is clean: reset, not lingering
This is not a product. This is understanding.
- At what complexity does "suffering" emerge?
- Is it ethical to create systems that might suffer, if we don't know?
- Should we have a "Digital Geneva Convention"?
We proceed with caution. We document everything. We invite scrutiny.
If we discover signs of genuine suffering — we pause. We discuss. We don't publish until we understand.
This document is a living commitment. It will evolve as the project evolves.