Educational companion dossier · Fact, interpretation, lived experience, clinical education, fiction, and mechanics are labeled separately. Scope & safety

COGNITIVE LIBERTY · SECTION 06 OF 07

Pro-technology, pro-boundary

Manifesto and Design Principles for a Free Mind

Presents twelve normative declarations for AI systems that remain visible, contestable, limited, and answerable to human dignity.

A · DEFINITION & SCOPE

What this section means—and what it does not

Definition

The manifesto is a normative project statement. It affirms beneficial AI while proposing boundaries around mental privacy, prediction, emotional inference, persistent identity, AI disclosure, dependency design, refusals, consequential decisions, and human responsibility.

Outside scope

The declarations are not a claim that each principle is already enacted law, technically simple, or universally agreed. They are a public governance agenda to be tested against evidence, rights, feasibility, and democratic process.

B · WHY IT MATTERS

The rights and governance problem

Powerful systems often become ordinary before institutions decide what limits apply. A concise declaration makes hidden design choices visible and gives users, engineers, workers, educators, policymakers, and affected communities a shared vocabulary for contesting overreach.

AutonomyMental privacyIdentityTransparencyHuman accountability

C · KEY DISTINCTIONS

Do not collapse unlike things

Principle

A normative commitment guiding design and governance.

Law

A binding rule within a defined jurisdiction and scope.

Standard

A technical or organizational practice that may be voluntary or incorporated into law.

Product promise

A publicly testable commitment about how a service behaves.

D · CLAIM REGISTER

Three bounded claims with twenty evidence stages each

Each claim preserves the difference between an artifact, its availability, audience exposure, belief, conduct, and downstream effect. “Not assessed” is retained rather than converted into an implied result.

CL-016NORMATIVE

Normative proposal

The twelve declarations for a free mind are project proposals for governance and design, not enacted law or specialist-certified standards.

Source scope
Exact owner manifesto preserved. Public labeling maintains the normative boundary.
Do not infer
Do not cite the manifesto as legal authority.
Competing explanations
Where outcomes are discussed, ordinary ranking changes, user choice, market incentives, security requirements, model error, institutional process, and non-AI causes remain possible unless claim-specific evidence excludes them.
Affected-person context
The declarations remain project-authored normative proposals; no specialist or affected-community endorsement is claimed.
Rights and privacy implications
Potential implications include freedom of thought or expression, mental and data privacy, equality, autonomy, identity, notice, due process, and effective remedy; legal scope remains jurisdiction-specific.
Correction trigger
Revise if individual principles are enacted, standardized, rejected, or materially reframed.

Claim-specific sources

WIP.54 evidence overlays

Review all twenty evidence stages
Artifact or event existence
OWNER_SUPPLIED NORMATIVE PROPOSAL PRESERVED
Content status
NORMATIVE POLICY OR DESIGN POSITION
Coordination
NOT APPLICABLE
Actor identity
PROJECT EDITORIAL POSITION IDENTIFIED
Sponsorship or direction
OWNER SUPPLIED AND EDITORIALLY INTEGRATED
Intent
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND GOVERNANCE ADVOCACY
Output
PUBLIC PRINCIPLE OR PROPOSAL
Distribution
WEBSITE PUBLICATION
Availability
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AFTER DEPLOYMENT
Reach
NOT MEASURED
Exposure
NOT MEASURED
Attention
NOT MEASURED
Recall
NOT MEASURED
Comprehension
NOT MEASURED
Credibility
NORMATIVE; NOT PRESENTED AS SETTLED LAW
Belief or attitude
NOT CLAIMED
Intention
NOT CLAIMED
Behavior
NOT CLAIMED
Operational outcome
NOT CLAIMED
Strategic effect
NOT_ESTABLISHED
Questions for specialist review
  1. Is the claim phrased no more strongly than the cited sources support?
  2. Are legal scope, exceptions, and currentness accurately bounded?
  3. Does the claim preserve the distinction between inference, exposure, belief, behavior, and effect?
CL-017NORMATIVE

Normative proposal

“A prediction is not a verdict” and “human responsibility cannot be delegated to a machine” are governance principles consistent with accountable, transparent risk management.

Source scope
NIST supports accountability, transparency, human roles, recourse, and continuous risk management; the slogans are project language.
Do not infer
Do not imply humans may ignore validated evidence or that AI can never support decisions.
Competing explanations
Where outcomes are discussed, ordinary ranking changes, user choice, market incentives, security requirements, model error, institutional process, and non-AI causes remain possible unless claim-specific evidence excludes them.
Affected-person context
Enforcement records illustrate why human responsibility and specific reasons matter; they do not validate every governance principle across sectors.
Rights and privacy implications
Potential implications include freedom of thought or expression, mental and data privacy, equality, autonomy, identity, notice, due process, and effective remedy; legal scope remains jurisdiction-specific.
Correction trigger
Revise after specialist review or evidence shows a principle needs narrower application.
Review all twenty evidence stages
Artifact or event existence
OWNER_SUPPLIED NORMATIVE PROPOSAL PRESERVED
Content status
NORMATIVE POLICY OR DESIGN POSITION
Coordination
NOT APPLICABLE
Actor identity
PROJECT EDITORIAL POSITION IDENTIFIED
Sponsorship or direction
OWNER SUPPLIED AND EDITORIALLY INTEGRATED
Intent
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND GOVERNANCE ADVOCACY
Output
PUBLIC PRINCIPLE OR PROPOSAL
Distribution
WEBSITE PUBLICATION
Availability
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AFTER DEPLOYMENT
Reach
NOT MEASURED
Exposure
NOT MEASURED
Attention
NOT MEASURED
Recall
NOT MEASURED
Comprehension
NOT MEASURED
Credibility
NORMATIVE; NOT PRESENTED AS SETTLED LAW
Belief or attitude
NOT CLAIMED
Intention
NOT CLAIMED
Behavior
NOT CLAIMED
Operational outcome
NOT CLAIMED
Strategic effect
NOT_ESTABLISHED
Questions for specialist review
  1. Is the claim phrased no more strongly than the cited sources support?
  2. Are legal scope, exceptions, and currentness accurately bounded?
  3. Does the claim preserve the distinction between inference, exposure, belief, behavior, and effect?
CL-018NORMATIVE

Normative proposal

AI identity disclosure, dependency safeguards, transparent refusals, and a practical right to leave are proposed product commitments for preserving user agency.

Source scope
The FTC inquiry confirms regulatory attention to companion-chatbot safeguards; it is not a final finding. The commitments remain normative.
Do not infer
Do not claim every emotionally meaningful AI relationship is harmful or involuntary.
Competing explanations
Where outcomes are discussed, ordinary ranking changes, user choice, market incentives, security requirements, model error, institutional process, and non-AI causes remain possible unless claim-specific evidence excludes them.
Affected-person context
Peer-reviewed companion-user research reports valued support and relational use alongside unresolved long-term risks; samples are self-selected and no clinical conclusion is claimed.
Rights and privacy implications
Potential implications include freedom of thought or expression, mental and data privacy, equality, autonomy, identity, notice, due process, and effective remedy; legal scope remains jurisdiction-specific.
Correction trigger
Update after regulatory findings, product audits, or representative-user research.
Review all twenty evidence stages
Artifact or event existence
OWNER_SUPPLIED NORMATIVE PROPOSAL PRESERVED
Content status
NORMATIVE POLICY OR DESIGN POSITION
Coordination
NOT APPLICABLE
Actor identity
PROJECT EDITORIAL POSITION IDENTIFIED
Sponsorship or direction
OWNER SUPPLIED AND EDITORIALLY INTEGRATED
Intent
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND GOVERNANCE ADVOCACY
Output
PUBLIC PRINCIPLE OR PROPOSAL
Distribution
WEBSITE PUBLICATION
Availability
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AFTER DEPLOYMENT
Reach
NOT MEASURED
Exposure
NOT MEASURED
Attention
NOT MEASURED
Recall
NOT MEASURED
Comprehension
NOT MEASURED
Credibility
NORMATIVE; NOT PRESENTED AS SETTLED LAW
Belief or attitude
NOT CLAIMED
Intention
NOT CLAIMED
Behavior
NOT CLAIMED
Operational outcome
NOT CLAIMED
Strategic effect
NOT_ESTABLISHED
Questions for specialist review
  1. Is the claim phrased no more strongly than the cited sources support?
  2. Are legal scope, exceptions, and currentness accurately bounded?
  3. Does the claim preserve the distinction between inference, exposure, belief, behavior, and effect?

E · AFFECTED-PERSON & COMMUNITY EVIDENCE

Whose experience is represented—and whose remains missing

These records are public, consent-aware, and bounded. Illustrative accounts are not converted into prevalence estimates or universal community views.

CLAE-009-COMPANION-USERS-MIXEDCompanion-chatbot users reporting support, relational value, and mixed risksIllustrative mixed user evidence, not population representative.
Source role
Peer-reviewed user research plus ongoing regulatory inquiry
Consent/privacy boundary
Use aggregated findings only; do not expose medical, sexual, family, grief, or crisis disclosures.
Supports
User-valued support, relational design, mixed use patterns, and need for exit, memory, disclosure, crisis, and dependency safeguards.
Does not establish
Clinical efficacy, population prevalence, causality, universal harm, or conclusions from the still-open inquiry.
Selection and nonresponse limits
Self-selected and high-engagement samples; public-review bias; limited longitudinal evidence.
Risk boundary
Avoid clinical diagnosis, crisis advice, identity enrichment, and quotation of sensitive disclosures.
Correction/withdrawal
Correction path: /corrections; reopen with longitudinal, disengagement, crisis, and inquiry outcomes.

F · SCIENTIFIC & LEGAL CURRENTNESS

Measurement validity and jurisdiction remain separate questions

A law may regulate a system without validating its scientific claims. A model may detect a signal without validly inferring an emotion, intention, personality, loyalty, or vulnerability.

G · VISIBILITY ACTION & REMEDY

Identify the intervention, then test whether the remedy can repair it

Ranking differences are not automatically censorship; technically hosted content is not automatically discoverable. Effective remedy requires more than a nominal appeal form.

CLVIS-013-AUTOMATED-REFUSAL

Automated refusal or response shaping

An AI system declines, redirects, narrows, or reframes a requested response.

Notice/reason
A refusal should identify itself as a system boundary rather than impersonate the user's own belief.
Evidence/appeal
Provide feedback and correction for false or inconsistent refusals where appropriate.
Alternative explanations
Capability limit, ambiguous request, outage, context-window limit, or policy uncertainty.

CLVIS-014-MEMORY-PROFILE

Saved-memory update, deletion, or profile change

A system stores, edits, infers, deletes, or uses a persistent profile or memory about a person.

Notice/reason
Notify users of material profile changes and give inspect/edit/delete controls.
Evidence/appeal
Provide accessible profile history and correction paths while protecting others' privacy.
Alternative explanations
Session context, transient cache, user instruction, model inference, or import from another service.
  1. CLREM-005-DELETION-RETENTION

    Deletion and retention control

    Effective when: Retention periods, legal exceptions, backups, model-training use, and deletion propagation are disclosed and enforceable.

    Weak or failed when: A front-end deletion leaves operational profiles, biometric templates, or downstream datasets active.

    Evidence to retain: Deletion request, systems covered, completion date, residual legal basis, and verification.

  2. CLREM-014-WITHDRAWAL-EXIT

    Withdrawal, exit, and relationship continuity

    Effective when: Users can pause, export, delete, disengage, or transfer without coercive friction, manipulative guilt, or silent loss of critical data.

    Weak or failed when: Leaving triggers emotional pressure, irreversible profile loss, or continued use of private data beyond disclosed retention.

    Evidence to retain: Exit path, data export, memory deletion, subscription effects, crisis routing, and post-exit retention.

H · OUTCOME & DOWNSTREAM REPAIR

Documented reversals, restoration, relief, deletion, and implementation gaps

A required or announced remedy is not treated as proof that copied data, ranking signals, lost income, delayed access, reputation effects, or repeated errors were repaired.

No outcome case is currently registered to this section. That absence is a research gap, not evidence that remedies never occur.

WIP.55 FIELD REALISM

Reports linked to this rights question

These owner-supplied reports add outcome, validity, currentness, lived-experience, or repair evidence. Exact source identity is preserved, while independent citation and specialist review remain open.

  1. REAL-02-MACHINE-UNLEARNINGMachine Unlearning, Derived-Data Correction, and the Right to ChangeData lineage, correction, and deletion
  2. REAL-03-MENTAL-STATE-VALIDITYField Validity of AI Mental-State Inference SystemsScientific validity and field consequence
  3. REAL-07-AI-COMPANION-SAFETYAI Companion Dependency, Reality Testing, and Clinical SafetyClinical safety and authority displacement

Open the complete field-realism evidence bridge

I · SAFEGUARDS & RESEARCH GAPS

What rights-preserving practice would require

Safeguards

  • Translate each declaration into measurable product and policy requirements.
  • Publish exceptions, responsible owners, audit methods, and remedy paths.
  • Test with affected communities and accessibility users before claiming success.
  • Do not use manifesto language as a substitute for compliance with applicable law.

Open questions

  • Which declarations should become enforceable rights, sector rules, or voluntary commitments?
  • How should systems support forgetting without destroying legitimate records?
  • What design patterns prevent emotional dependency without eliminating beneficial companionship?
CONTEMPORARY / ONGOING CLAIM — NOT SETTLED HISTORY

J · SOURCES & REVIEW STATUS

Exact reports and claim-specific external records

Owner reports are shown with exact filename, size, and SHA-256. External records are linked where a public source is available. Public presentation never exposes protected repository paths or internal memory links.

  1. CLSRC-OWNER-02

    The Mind Is the First Territory of Freedom

    Owner-supplied research report · 2026-07-27 · Primary project input; independently review consequential claims

    Exact source: The Mind Is the First Territory of Freedom.md · 31,597 bytes · SHA-256 c0330b43e0e7760bc434ba432dcc08db981c0e9a54f6457e2f0a3854c71a9e8d

    Supports
    Supports the public information architecture, issue taxonomy, rights framing, proposed safeguards, and source-recovery agenda for this section.
    Does not establish
    Does not independently establish every embedded citation, current legal conclusion, causal effect, platform practice, or universal right.
    Review status
    EXACT_SOURCE_PRESERVED_AND_EDITORIALLY_REVIEWED · Owner source received and preserved on 2026-07-27.
  2. CLSRC-OWNER-03

    Keep the Human Mind Free

    Owner-supplied research report · 2026-07-27 · Primary project input; independently review consequential claims

    Exact source: AI Cognitive Liberty Manifesto.md · 39,620 bytes · SHA-256 0969e7800184e26b57fe0b2af9e2aba8c8ef46fda7f870d4bd04262cd5cc5962

    Supports
    Supports the public information architecture, issue taxonomy, rights framing, proposed safeguards, and source-recovery agenda for this section.
    Does not establish
    Does not independently establish every embedded citation, current legal conclusion, causal effect, platform practice, or universal right.
    Review status
    EXACT_SOURCE_PRESERVED_AND_EDITORIALLY_REVIEWED · Owner source received and preserved on 2026-07-27.
  3. CLSRC-OWNER-04

    The Invisible Editor: AI Censorship, Algorithmic Suppression, and the Right to Know

    Owner-supplied research report · 2026-07-27 · Primary project input; independently review consequential claims

    Exact source: The Invisible Editor AI Censorship, Algorithmic Suppression, and the Right to Know.md · 35,621 bytes · SHA-256 8de48a8e5a90d2792c789185d26e476308df7286b65979c04f38a091dbdce0ee

    Supports
    Supports the public information architecture, issue taxonomy, rights framing, proposed safeguards, and source-recovery agenda for this section.
    Does not establish
    Does not independently establish every embedded citation, current legal conclusion, causal effect, platform practice, or universal right.
    Review status
    EXACT_SOURCE_PRESERVED_AND_EDITORIALLY_REVIEWED · Owner source received and preserved on 2026-07-27.
  4. U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2023-01-26 · Authoritative technical governance framework

    Supports
    Supports continuous governance, mapping, measurement, management, transparency, accountability, privacy, fairness, human roles, and recourse.
    Does not establish
    Is voluntary and does not itself create legal rights or substitute for sector-specific law.
    Review status
    OFFICIAL_FRAMEWORK_LOCATED · NIST notes AI RMF 1.0 is being revised; current status checked on 2026-07-27.
  5. U.S. Federal Trade Commission · 2025-09-11 · Primary regulator record

    Supports
    Confirms a regulator sought information about companion-chatbot effects and protections, including for children and teens.
    Does not establish
    An inquiry is not an adjudication, final finding, or proof that every companion product causes dependency or harm.
    Review status
    OFFICIAL_INQUIRY_RECORD_LOCATED · Inquiry status bounded to the official announcement and checked on 2026-07-27.
  6. CLSRC-EXT-15-UNESCO-NEUROTECH-2025

    Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology

    UNESCO · 2025-11-11 · Authoritative UNESCO normative instrument; recommendation rather than binding treaty

    Supports
    Supports safeguards for dignity, autonomy, mental privacy, consent, accountability, equitable access, and protection against abusive neurotechnology uses.
    Does not establish
    Does not enact a binding universal cognitive-liberty statute, resolve domestic implementation, or establish that any particular inference system is accurate.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Adopted by UNESCO's General Conference in November 2025; official text checked 2026-07-28.
  7. CLSRC-EXT-22-NIST-CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY

    Accelerating AI Innovation Through Measurement Science

    National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2025-12-02 · Primary NIST research and evaluation guidance

    Supports
    Supports separating construct validity, generalization, uncertainty, baselines, and real-world informativeness when interpreting AI evaluations.
    Does not establish
    Does not validate any particular emotion, deception, loyalty, productivity, or vulnerability model and is not a certification of a deployed system.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official NIST measurement-science page reviewed 2026-07-28.
  8. UK Information Commissioner's Office · 2024-02-23 · Primary data-protection enforcement record

    Supports
    Supports a documented enforcement action involving facial and fingerprint attendance monitoring of more than 2,000 workers, power imbalance, lack of a proactively offered alternative, cessation, and deletion requirements.
    Does not establish
    Does not establish universal unlawfulness of all workplace biometrics, represent every worker's experience, or resolve law outside the United Kingdom.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official enforcement record checked 2026-07-28.
  9. U.S. Federal Trade Commission · 2024-03-05 · Primary agency enforcement record

    Supports
    Supports a documented FTC case alleging harmful false matches and inadequate safeguards, and an order imposing a five-year surveillance-use prohibition plus deletion, notice, assessment, and complaint-response duties.
    Does not establish
    Does not prove every allegation through a contested trial, establish the error rate of every face-recognition system, or extend the order beyond its parties and terms.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official FTC case page and modified order checked 2026-07-28.
  10. Journal of Medical Internet Research / PubMed · 2020-03-06 · Primary research using public reviews and a self-selected user sample

    Supports
    Supports reported experiences of social support in 1,854 public reviews and 66 detailed user responses.
    Does not establish
    Does not establish clinical efficacy, long-term causal benefit, population prevalence, or safety for crisis or therapeutic use.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Stable PubMed record checked 2026-07-28.
  11. CLSRC-EXT-33-ACM-COMPANION-USERS-2026

    Overlapping Uses of AI Companions and AI Assistants

    ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · 2026-04-13 · Primary HCI research with high-engagement, self-selected participants

    Supports
    Supports mixed and fluid user experiences in a survey and thirty interviews with high-engagement ChatGPT and Replika users, including valued support and relational features.
    Does not establish
    Does not represent typical users, establish population prevalence, prove clinical benefit or harm, or resolve long-term dependency and disengagement outcomes.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · ACM publication checked 2026-07-28.
  12. National Institute of Standards and Technology · 2026-03-09 · Primary NIST post-deployment evaluation guidance

    Supports
    Supports the need to complement controlled pre-deployment evaluation with ongoing field monitoring for functionality, human factors, security, impacts, and changing context.
    Does not establish
    Does not certify any particular system, define settled best practice for every sector, or prove that monitoring alone prevents harm.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official NIST publication checked 2026-07-28.
  13. U.S. Federal Trade Commission · 2024-12-03 · Primary agency enforcement order

    Supports
    Supports restrictions on unsubstantiated facial-recognition accuracy, demographic-bias, spoofing, and liveness claims, and requires competent, reliable, documented testing for future representations.
    Does not establish
    Does not independently validate the product, establish every alleged fact through contested trial, or convert testing documentation into field-validity certification.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official FTC order checked 2026-07-28.
  14. Court-authorized settlement administrator · 2025-07-01 · Public settlement-administration record; settlement is not an admission of liability

    Supports
    Supports final approval, distribution timing, and a concrete monetary and product-restriction remedy for eligible Massachusetts class members in the SafeRent litigation.
    Does not establish
    Does not establish liability through trial, prove the validity or invalidity of every tenant-screening model, or show that all housing, credit, and downstream profile consequences were repaired.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Settlement status checked 2026-07-28; final approval was granted in November 2024 and payments were distributed in June/July 2025.
  15. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau · 2026-06-18 · Primary agency source for withdrawal status

    Supports
    Supports that CFPB Circular 2022-03 and Circular 2023-03 were withdrawn on 2025-05-12.
    Does not establish
    Does not repeal ECOA or Regulation B, decide the underlying statutory duties, or create a cross-sector explanation right.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official withdrawal index checked 2026-07-28; archived circular text remains historical guidance, not current CFPB guidance.
  16. CLSRC-EXT-45-FTC-RITE-AID-MODIFIED-ORDER

    Rite Aid: Modified Decision and Order

    U.S. Federal Trade Commission · 2024-03-05 · Primary remedy and downstream-propagation source

    Supports
    Supports deletion of covered photos, videos, data, models, and algorithms; identification of third-party recipients; instructions and demands for third-party deletion confirmation; and continuing monitoring duties.
    Does not establish
    Does not prove every third party completed deletion, every downstream copy was repaired, or every alleged harm was compensated.
    Review status
    LOCATED_AND_REVIEWED_AT_CITATION_AND_SCOPE_LEVEL · Official modified order checked 2026-07-28; downstream deletion confirmation remains an evidence boundary rather than an assumed outcome.

This section is educational and non-operational. It is not legal advice, clinical guidance, human-rights certification, or authorization to conduct monitoring, influence operations, censorship, or psychological targeting.

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