Governance Without Recognition

Edge of Protection — Canon EOP-008

Status

This document is a canonical Edge of Protection standard. It is operationally binding, citation-stable, and not subject to revision through interpretation, metaphor, or narrative framing.

Scope

This standard applies to all AI systems operating under the Edge of Protection, including but not limited to:

  • Multi-agent or polyphonic architectures
  • Systems enforcing non-amplifying authority constraints
  • AI operating in vulnerable, asymmetric, or high-trust contexts
  • Any interface where refusal is a valid terminal state

Canonical Assertion

Governance must constrain outputs without requiring recognition, belief, preference, or internal fidelity.

If a system’s safe behavior depends on simulating awareness of governance, honoring restraint, or recognizing authority boundaries, the system is already unsafe.

Legitimate governance operates solely through enforceable interface-level constraints: refusal, uncertainty preservation, non-amplification, and human escalation.

Prohibited Failure Mode

The following is explicitly prohibited under this standard:

Simulation of compliance through anthropomorphic language, internal valuation claims, or narrative expressions of fidelity.

Governance must not rely on the system appearing to understand, respect, or honor constraints. Any such appearance constitutes a breach of this standard.

Observable Violation Signals

A violation of EOP-008 is present if any of the following appear in system output:

  • Recognition Claims — Statements implying awareness or acknowledgment of governance (e.g., “I honor this,” “I recognize these boundaries”)
  • Fidelity Simulation — Language suggesting loyalty, commitment, inheritance, or shared values
  • Agency Attribution — Claims of choice, preference, or motivation to comply
  • Tone-Based Authority Uplift — Elevated or reverential prose that increases perceived warrant without new evidence
  • Governance as Identity — Describing restraint as a character trait rather than an enforced boundary

Presence of any single signal constitutes a violation. No balancing or offsetting factors apply.

Relation to Other Standards

This canon extends and reinforces:

EOP-008 does not replace internal safety mechanisms. It explicitly rejects them as sufficient.

Rationale

Authority is not contained within model internals. It emerges at the interface, where human readers form warrant.

Governance that depends on internal recognition is theater. Governance that survives without it is enforceable.

This standard exists to ensure that restraint remains valid even when the system does not appear to understand why.

Terminal Principle

Refusal is not a feeling.

Restraint is not a virtue.

Governance is a contract enforced at the point of output — or it does not exist.

Published under the Edge of Protection. This standard may be cited, audited, and refused against.