Society · Governance
Responsibility
Continuous ownership of a system invariant
Definition
Mechanism
A standing governance contract where an Agent explicitly bonds to a System Invariant over a specific Scope. Unlike a Task (which has a completion state), Responsibility is a continuous maintenance loop—a 'standing wave' rather than an event. The Agent is liable for any violation of the Invariant within the Scope, regardless of cause. Responsibility implies owning externalities. It formalizes ownership via OathBind and requires a continuous Heartbeat to prove the invariant is being monitored.
Preconditions
Postconditions
- Invariant is continuously maintained
- Violations are detected and reported
Invariants
Risks
Failure modes
Scapegoating
The agent blames external factors for a failure within its scope.
Responsibility Vacuum
No agent is bound to a critical invariant.
Overreach
Agent claims responsibility for scope they cannot monitor.
Relationships
Builds on
References
Used by
Accepts
Transfer control and context between agents
References
Pair the authority to repair harm with involving those harmed in defining the repair
Stateful container for a running solver instance
Reference
Parameters
check_intervalDuration, [1s, 1h]- Frequency of invariant verification