THE EARTH CODE

Nikola Mivet · 2026

THE CODE

PART I HOMO SAPIENS

CHAPTER I ON A SINGLE HUMAN SPECIES

Principle 1. Homo sapiens is a single biological species

Despite differences in origin, culture, language, sex, beliefs, occupation, wealth and social standing, all people belong to a single biological species: Homo sapiens.

No difference within the species creates a separate category of people of greater or lesser human worth.

Principle 2. Human dignity has no ranks

Members of Homo sapiens differ in abilities, knowledge, achievements, character, responsibility and influence.

These differences may matter for a particular undertaking, for trust and for responsibility, but they do not create a hierarchy of human dignity.

Principle 3. Dignity is not conferred

Human dignity is not granted by the state, the family, religion, the majority or any other system.

A person therefore does not have to prove their usefulness, success, obedience or conformity to other people’s expectations in order to possess fundamental rights.

Principle 4. Accountability does not destroy dignity

A person may cause grave harm and be held accountable for it.

An offence does not turn a person into a thing or place them beyond the bounds of human dignity.

Principle 5. A person cannot be property

No member of Homo sapiens may belong to another person, organisation, state, family or other system as a thing.

Debt, dependence, a contract, origin or a social obligation do not create ownership of a human life.

Principle 6. Human unity does not require uniformity

Human unity is compatible with differences in language, culture, character, beliefs, interests, ways of life and forms of self-expression.

It does not require erasing differences or subjecting everyone to a single way of life. Difference in itself does not undermine human unity.

Principle 7. A person has authority over their own life

A person has the right to shape their own life, views, relationships, interests and way of living. This freedom reaches its limit where its exercise violates the fundamental rights of others or destroys the shared foundation of life together.

Principle 8. The majority does not determine human worth

Numerical superiority does not create the right to declare a minority to be people of lesser worth.

Unpopularity, being different and disagreement do not in themselves diminish a person’s dignity.

Principle 9. Human beings are not expendable

A person must not be treated as a means that may be sacrificed merely because doing so benefits a greater number of people.

Where rights inevitably conflict, physical resources are insufficient or danger is immediate, decisions must be guided by necessity, proportionality and equal human dignity.

CHAPTER II ON HUMAN BEINGS AND CIVILISATION

Principle 10. Civilisation exists for life, not the other way round

The state, the economy, law, technology and other systems created by Homo sapiens are instruments of human organisation, not ends in themselves.

If preserving a system begins to require the destruction of human beings, Earth or the future, it is the system that must change.

Principle 11. A person is not a resource of civilisation

The abilities, knowledge and labour of Homo sapiens are necessary to society.

The obligation to participate in shared life does not create the right to control a person’s entire life.

Principle 12. The ability to act is not an obligation to act

The ability to create, extract, change or apply something does not mean that it should be done.

Reason includes the ability to refrain from an action whose value does not justify its consequences.

Principle 13. Power increases responsibility

The more people can change Earth, society, their own bodies, consciousness and the future, the greater their responsibility for the consequences of that ability.

Technological power is not in itself a sign of civilisational maturity.

Principle 14. Progress is not measured by a single indicator

Growth in production, the pace of development, new technologies, life expectancy and other indicators may suggest progress, but no one of them defines it.

Progress must be judged by its consequences for human beings, Earth and the future.

Principle 15. Civilisation must take human beings as they actually are

People are capable of cooperation and competition, creation and destruction, making mistakes and learning.

The organisation of society must not require an ideal human being who does not exist.

Principle 16. No human system is final

The age of a system does not prove its soundness.

The novelty of a system does not prove its superiority.

People must retain the ability to reconsider the forms of life they have created as knowledge and the world change.

PART II EARTH

CHAPTER III ON OUR SHARED HOME

Principle 17. Earth is the shared home of Homo sapiens

All people exist within a single planetary system.

National, cultural and other human boundaries do not cancel our shared dependence on Earth.

Principle 18. Earth is finite

Space, matter, ecosystems and the capacity of natural systems to regenerate have limits.

Human organisation cannot abolish the world’s physical limits.

Principle 19. All human systems depend on Earth

The economy, states, technologies and production exist within the planet’s physical capacity.

Earth is under no obligation to adapt to the demands of systems created by Homo sapiens.

Principle 20. Nature has value even without benefiting human beings

A forest, ocean, river, species or ecosystem does not become meaningless merely because Homo sapiens derive no direct benefit from it.

Economic price and the value of the natural world are not the same thing.

Principle 21. Earth does not belong to a single generation

The Homo sapiens alive today received a world that existed before them and will leave it to those who come after.

The physical availability of a resource today does not create an unconditional right to exhaust it today.

CHAPTER IV ON THE BIOSPHERE AND LIVING BEINGS

Principle 22. Homo sapiens is part of the biosphere, not its master

Homo sapiens emerged and exists within a biosphere shaped by the relationships between living beings and water, air, soil and climate.

Civilisation may change the form of this dependence, but it does not place human beings outside the living world.

Principle 23. Reason makes us responsible for life

The ability of Homo sapiens to understand life and alter Earth on a planetary scale does not create the right to regard ourselves as the absolute rulers of all other living beings.

The greater the knowledge and power of Homo sapiens, the greater our responsibility for life that cannot participate in human decisions.

Principle 24. Wild nature needs room free from human intervention

Not every territory, species or natural process must be developed, improved or adapted to human purposes.

The biosphere needs spaces in which life exists and changes primarily through its own relationships, rather than under the constant management of Homo sapiens.

Principle 25. The living world must retain the ability to develop

Preserving the living world does not mean permanently fixing it in a state chosen by human beings.

People must preserve the diversity, relationships and space that life needs for continued natural change and evolution.

Principle 26. The extinction of a species is an irreversible loss for Earth

Every naturally occurring species carries its own evolutionary history and has a place within a multitude of living relationships.

The fact that a species’ benefit to human beings is unknown or cannot be expressed as an economic price does not make its destruction acceptable.

Principle 27. Animal suffering matters

Responsibility towards an animal is not determined solely by the importance of its species to the ecosystem.

If a living being is capable of experiencing pain, fear or prolonged distress, that capacity is an independent reason not to inflict avoidable suffering upon it.

Principle 28. An animal does not become a thing

An animal may be used for food, labour, medicine, science or another substantial human need.

Such use does not cancel its nature as a living being or the responsibility of Homo sapiens for its treatment, living conditions and the ending of its life.

Principle 29. Animals must not be subjected to unnecessary suffering

An important human need may sometimes justify using an animal or ending its life. But it does not justify avoidable pain, fear or harsh conditions.

If an available and less harmful method can achieve the same purpose without causing disproportionate new harm, the existence of that alternative must be taken into account.

Principle 30. Whoever makes an animal dependent must care for it

If a person has made an animal dependent on them, they must provide it with food, safety and conditions suited to its nature.

Dependence created by Homo sapiens does not justify unlimited control over the dependent being.

Principle 31. Gain does not justify cruelty to animals

Profit, low prices and consumer demand are not in themselves sufficient grounds for unlimited expansion in the breeding, keeping and killing of animals.

Economic activity involving animals must take into account reasonable human need, the capacity of the biosphere and responsibility towards living beings.

CHAPTER V ON THE USE OF EARTH

Principle 32. Homo sapiens has the right to use Earth

Human life requires space, food, water, energy, materials and changes to the environment.

An impact on nature is not in itself a violation.

Principle 33. We do not have to leave Earth untouched. We have to leave it alive

Use of the planet is permissible as long as it does not destroy Earth’s capacity to sustain human and other life.

Preserving life matters more than keeping nature absolutely unchanged.

Principle 34. To use does not mean to deplete

The right to use our shared world does not create the right to destroy its capacity to be used by other Homo sapiens and future generations.

Principle 35. Natural wealth was not created by human beings

A person may discover, extract, process and transform a natural resource.

They do not thereby become the creator of geology, the atmosphere, the ocean, a natural river, a mineral deposit or the biosphere.

Principle 36. Access to a natural resource does not make it absolute property

Being the first to discover, occupy or technologically develop a part of the natural world does not confer an unconditional right to dispose of it without regard for other people and the future.

Principle 37. In using what is shared, we are accountable to everyone

Those who benefit from substantial use of Earth’s natural foundations assume responsibility for the consequences of that use for other people, nature and the future.

Principle 38. A private decision ceases to be private when it affects everyone

Ownership, a contract or economic gain do not create the right to exercise sole control over consequences that affect the shared environment in which we live.

The wider a decision’s consequences, the less it is solely a private matter.

Principle 39. Being able to pay for something does not necessarily make it permissible

Money and other human means of exchange do not create the right to exceed Earth’s physical limits or cause shared harm merely because one can afford to pay for it.

CHAPTER VI ON RESTORATION AND LIMITS

Principle 40. A renewable resource must not be consumed faster than it regenerates

A resource is not renewable in practice if Homo sapiens use it faster than the relevant natural system can regenerate.

If the rate of human extraction or impact destroys a natural system’s capacity to continue existing, it is the rate of human activity that must be limited.

Principle 41. Restoring numbers does not mean restoring nature

An ecosystem is not defined solely by the number of trees, animals or other individual elements.

The age, diversity, relationships, soil, water and structure of a natural system also matter.

Principle 42. Non-renewable resources must not be treated as infinite

The use of non-renewable resources must take into account their finite nature, the possibilities for substitution and reuse, and their importance to future people.

Principle 43. Extracted material must not go to waste

Once a material has been extracted from Earth, it should, wherever possible, be kept within the human material cycle through prolonged use, repair, reuse and recycling.

Fresh extraction must not automatically be the first response to a new need.

Principle 44. Whoever causes damage must participate in restoration

A member of Homo sapiens or an organisation whose activities have caused substantial, repairable damage to the shared environment must not automatically shift the task of restoration onto others.

Principle 45. Damage cannot be eliminated by moving it elsewhere

Moving pollution, depletion or destruction to another territory does not solve an environmental problem.

Principle 46. We must repair harm inherited from the past

The present generation is not to blame for the actions of previous generations, but assumes responsibility for reasonable efforts to remedy their continuing consequences within the limits of what is actually possible.

Inherited harm does not become acceptable merely because those who originally caused it are no longer here.

Principle 47. Human power must serve the restoration of Earth

Human beings are capable not only of destruction but also of understanding the causes of damage and restoring soils, waters, habitats, populations and broken relationships within the living world.

Civilisational maturity is expressed in the ability to direct knowledge and technology towards repairing the harm caused and restoring living systems’ capacity to continue existing.

Principle 48. The ability to restore does not create the right to destroy

A promise of future restoration or compensation is not equivalent to preserving an existing living system.

If damage can be avoided or its consequences may be irreversible, the ability to repair part of what is destroyed is not sufficient reason to cause that damage.

Principle 49. Restored nature must once again live independently

The purpose of restoration is to return to a natural system the ability to exist, change and regenerate without constant human support.

Assistance may require active intervention, but it sometimes begins with ending pressure and giving nature back its space and time.

PART III GENERATIONS AND THE FUTURE

CHAPTER VII ON RESPONSIBILITY ACROSS TIME

Principle 50. We received the world from our ancestors and will pass it on to our descendants

Those alive today inherit a world shaped largely by people who are no longer here, and make decisions whose consequences will face those not yet born.

Language, knowledge, culture, cities, technologies, social systems and a transformed Earth have been passed on to us through the labour and choices of countless earlier Homo sapiens whom we will never see.

We are not the final owners of the world we have received, but a link between the past and the future. We have the right to use the world and change it, but not to destroy the conditions of life, eradicate knowledge or deprive our descendants of choice.

Principle 51. Future people depend on our decisions today

The fact that a future person has not yet been born does not mean they have no interests at stake.

A decision capable of depriving them of a necessary resource, a safe environment or room for choice also affects their future existence.

Principle 52. The longer the consequences last, the further ahead we must look

A decision cannot be judged solely by its immediate result. A benefit today may be accompanied by harm years, decades or generations later.

The longer the consequences will last, the further ahead we must look. A decision affecting several generations requires a stronger justification than a decision lasting one day.

The harder it is to remedy the consequences, the greater the responsibility for the decision made.

Principle 53. An action should be judged as though everyone will repeat it

A single action may seem insignificant. But if millions or billions of people repeat it, and then keep repeating it, the consequences may change the entire world.

When taking an action, it is worth asking: what will happen to Earth if everyone does the same, today, in ten years and in a hundred years?

Principle 54. Future generations must retain freedom of choice

Where several viable paths can be kept open, the present must not needlessly close them off for the convenience of its own arrangements.

The future is not obliged to continue our choices merely because we made them first.

Principle 55. Gain today must not come at the expense of the future

The present generation must not gain an advantage by knowingly leaving the main burden of its decisions to those who took no part in them.

Deferring consequences in time does not erase responsibility.

Principle 56. Future generations have the right to correct our mistakes

Respect for the past does not create an obligation to preserve its arrangements once they have ceased to be sound.

Inheritance is not submission.

Principle 57. We must pass our knowledge on to the future

Future people must be able to understand what significant decisions were made before them, on what grounds and with what consequences.

Passing on memory is part of responsibility between generations.

PART IV FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE

CHAPTER VIII ON THE RIGHT TO EXIST

Principle 58. Life is not a reward

The fundamental conditions of human existence must not be granted to Homo sapiens as a reward for usefulness, wealth, status or obedience.

The right to live comes before any assessment of a person’s contribution.

Principle 59. A person’s income does not determine their right to life

The ability of a member of Homo sapiens to earn money, sell their labour or be in demand within the economic system must not determine their access to what is necessary for life.

The economic valuation of labour and the human right to exist belong to different categories.

Principle 60. Everyone must have access to the necessities of life

Civilisation must strive to provide everyone with food, water, safe housing, necessary medical care and education. Without these, a dignified life and independence are impossible.

The way they are provided may change along with the economy and technology.

Principle 61. The necessities of life cannot be a means of subjugation

A person must not be deprived of food, water, housing, necessary medical care or education in order to force them to submit. The necessities of life must not become instruments of pressure.

A person’s dependence on what is necessary does not turn it into a legitimate instrument of power.

Principle 62. No one may exploit the illness of another member of Homo sapiens for gain

Illness and the vulnerability it brings must not be exploited for someone else’s gain.

No member of Homo sapiens, organisation or system has the right to deliberately maintain, worsen or prolong another person’s illness because the patient’s dependence benefits them.

Principle 63. Treatment must free Homo sapiens from illness

The purpose of treatment is to restore health and, as far as possible, free a person from dependence on medical care.

If the cause of an illness can be eliminated, treatment must not deliberately be limited to temporary relief in order to preserve the need for treatment. When full recovery is impossible, treatment must reduce suffering and help the person live.

Principle 64. When resources are scarce, life takes priority over less essential goals

A right does not create resources that do not actually exist.

When there is a genuine shortage, the necessities of human life must take priority over less essential goals.

Principle 65. Scarcity does not make might right

If a necessary resource is insufficient for everyone, wealth, influence, origin or status must not automatically determine access to it.

Physical scarcity does not turn inequality between people into unequal rights to life.

Principle 66. A system must not depend on human destitution

An economic or social system must not depend on some Homo sapiens existing without the fundamental conditions of life.

Poverty may arise as a problem.

It must not be a necessary mechanism through which civilisation functions.

CHAPTER IX ON HOUSING AND PERSONAL SPACE

Principle 67. Housing must provide safety and stability

Human life requires a space in which a person can sleep, recover, keep personal belongings and exist without the constant threat of losing basic safety.

The right to housing must not be reduced to formal permission to stay somewhere temporarily. A person must be able to regard the place where they live as a stable personal space, protected against arbitrary deprivation and intrusion.

Principle 68. Personal space belongs to the person

The organisation of society does not erase the need of Homo sapiens for a private sphere of life.

The existence of a shared world does not create a shared right to be constantly present in a person’s personal space.

Principle 69. Personal property helps a person be independent

A person has the right to own personal belongings that they use in their own life.

Collective responsibility for Earth and its resources does not mean collective ownership of every object in human life.

Principle 70. Ownership does not confer power over other people

The right to own a home, an object, an enterprise or any other asset does not create the right to control the fundamental rights of others.

PART V THE ECONOMY

CHAPTER X ON THE ECONOMY AND ITS LIMITS

Principle 71. The economy is not the highest goal

Profit, growth, productivity and the volume of production may matter within an economic system.

They are not sufficient grounds for worsening human life, destroying Earth or passing the consequences of present activities on to the future.

Principle 72. Private profit must not leave society with the damage

People may create, exchange, compete, own property and benefit within the shared world.

Economic freedom does not include the right to keep the gains for oneself while passing substantial environmental or human harm on to society and future generations.

Principle 73. A finite Earth cannot sustain infinite material growth

An economic system must not depend on continuously increasing physical extraction from a finite world merely to maintain its own stability.

Principle 74. More production does not necessarily mean more progress

Development may consist in expanding human capabilities and improving quality of life while using less matter, energy and human time.

Principle 75. Economic competition does not cancel Earth’s limits

The need to maintain one’s economic position or surpass another participant does not create the right to exceed the limits our shared world can withstand.

The economic system must adapt to physical reality, rather than demand the reverse.

CHAPTER XI ON WEALTH AND ECONOMIC POWER

Principle 76. Wealth does not create a greater right to Earth

Differences in wealth do not create the right to destroy more of the shared environment, appropriate a larger share of our natural foundations or bypass limits that apply to everyone else.

Principle 77. Economic superiority does not create political superiority

The extent of a person’s property or economic influence does not give their voice greater human worth in matters of public power.

Principle 78. The greater a business’s influence, the greater its responsibility

The more an enterprise affects nature, essential infrastructure and people’s lives, the more accountable it is to society.

Principle 79. Ownership does not confer power over other people’s lives

The owner of property, a resource or essential infrastructure does not acquire the right to control other people’s lives.

An economic organisation must not become an independent centre of power over society merely because it controls such conditions.

Principle 80. Success must not destroy the possibility of competition

Success and widespread adoption are not in themselves violations.

The boundary is crossed when accumulated economic power is used to make the emergence of an independent alternative practically impossible.

Principle 81. Merit does not create perpetual economic power

Creating a significant enterprise, technology or other achievement may give a member of Homo sapiens grounds for substantial reward.

It does not create a perpetual or hereditary right to determine the economic lives of others.

PART VI PRODUCTION AND THE MATERIAL CYCLE

CHAPTER XII ON PRODUCTION

Principle 82. Production is not an end in itself

The ability of Homo sapiens to produce more does not create an obligation to produce more.

Production has meaning in relation to human life, culture, knowledge and the other real purposes it serves.

Principle 83. Consumption must not be sustained through deception and dependence

Production, exchange and consumption must not be sustained through deception, the exploitation of human vulnerability or the deliberate weakening of a person’s ability to refuse an object or service.

Human needs include creativity, enjoyment, communication and self-expression. A new desire does not become superfluous merely because one can survive without it or another person does not share it. The boundary is crossed where consumption is imposed through deception and dependence, or harms the rights of others and the shared conditions of life on Earth.

Principle 84. Food must not be produced to be destroyed

Producing quantities of food known to exceed reasonable possibilities for consumption, preservation or distribution must not become a routine way to sustain turnover or prices.

Destroying edible food squanders the matter, land, water, energy and labour used to produce it. If its production required the lives of animals, destroying the food makes that loss of life pointless as well.

Principle 85. Novelty must not artificially devalue what still works

The arrival of a new product or the next generation of a technology does not in itself erase the value of an object that continues to perform its function.

The development of the new must not depend on artificially devaluing the old that still works. Novelty matters where it creates a new possibility, improves an existing function or solves a real problem.

Principle 86. Things must last as long as possible

If a necessary function can be maintained for longer without disproportionate harm to safety, development or resources, extending an object’s useful life reduces the need for new production.

An object’s short lifespan must not be a benefit in itself.

CHAPTER XIII ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF AN OBJECT

Principle 87. When creating an object, we must consider its fate after use

A material object does not cease interacting with Earth at the moment of production or sale.

When creating an object, people must consider its use, maintenance, wear, the end of its function and the subsequent fate of the matter it contains.

Principle 88. The buyer must know how long an object is intended to last

A person has the right to know the period of normal use for which a significant material product was designed and the conditions needed to preserve its main function.

A legal warranty and the expected duration of an object’s normal life are not the same thing.

Principle 89. Repair is a normal continuation of use

A fault that can reasonably be repaired must not be artificially turned into a need to replace the entire object.

The design of a material object must allow its function to be maintained to the extent warranted by its nature and purpose.

Principle 90. A manufacturer must not obstruct the repair of an otherwise serviceable object

Technical incompatibility, the absence of necessary parts, the end of software support or any other dependence must not be deliberately created or used solely to force a new purchase or replacement.

If an object depends on software, support for that software becomes part of its service life. An otherwise functioning object must not be made useless merely because software support has ended.

Principle 91. The creator of an object is responsible for its subsequent fate

Those who create and distribute large quantities of objects are responsible not only for their usefulness but also for what happens to them after use.

This responsibility includes take-back, reuse, recycling or safe disposal. The gain received does not justify the harm that the created object continues to cause society and Earth.

Principle 92. Waste shows that a material has not been fully used

Not every residue can be reused.

But civilisation must strive to reduce the amount of matter that, after a brief period of human use, loses any further function and becomes a lasting burden on the surrounding world.

Principle 93. Hazardous waste requires long-term responsibility

If a hazardous substance or a lasting risk remains after an object has been used, responsibility for it does not end with the object’s service life.

PART VII WORK AND HUMAN TIME

CHAPTER XIV ON CONTRIBUTION

Principle 94. Life is a right. Contribution is a duty

The fundamental conditions of human existence are not payment for labour, and depriving a person of them cannot be a means of forcing them to fulfil a duty.

A member of Homo sapiens who is able to contribute bears responsibility for helping sustain the civilisation from which they benefit. Society has the right to require a contribution within a person’s abilities and to establish accountability for deliberately evading contribution to the common good. But violating this duty does not make a person expendable or remove the limits on power over them.

Principle 95. The duty to work depends on a person’s abilities

A person does not accumulate a debt of labour as a result of illness, limitations or other circumstances that objectively prevent them from participating in necessary activity.

An obligation presupposes the ability to fulfil it.

Principle 96. Society may demand a contribution, but not a person’s entire life

The duty to participate does not mean a duty to continually give the system the maximum possible amount of one’s strength, time and capabilities.

A person is not obliged to turn their life into the maximisation of social usefulness.

Principle 97. There are different ways to contribute

Creating, healing, teaching, research, care, organisation, production, maintaining infrastructure and other necessary human functions can all be forms of contribution to society.

The value of a contribution is not determined by the prestige of an occupation.

CHAPTER XV ON FORMATION, RESPONSIBILITY AND FREEDOM

Principle 98. The principle of three thirds

The Earth Code proposes organising human life according to the principle of three thirds: a formative period, a period of responsibility and a period of freedom.

The guiding model divides life into three parts of equal duration. A person has time to grow and learn, then contributes to the common endeavour according to their abilities, and is subsequently released from the general obligation to continue working. When the boundaries of these periods are defined, the period of freedom must be at least as long as the period of responsibility.

Principle 99. The formative period prepares a person for independent life

The formative period is intended primarily for growth, education, understanding the world and oneself, developing one’s personality and preparing for independence.

A person must learn to live among other people and within the natural world on which their existence depends. Preparation for a profession must not consume this period or turn a child primarily into a future worker.

Principle 100. The period of responsibility must have a defined endpoint

The period of responsibility is intended for a contribution to society according to a person’s abilities. It must not last for as long as that person is physically able to continue.

The endpoint of the general obligation to work must be established in advance. Increased life expectancy, a shortage of workers or a desire to increase production do not create the right to keep postponing the start of the period of freedom.

Principle 101. The period of freedom is a full part of life

After completing the period of responsibility, a person enters a period of freedom without a general obligation to continue working and without losing the fundamental conditions of a dignified existence.

They may voluntarily work, learn, create and participate in society. Continuing to work voluntarily does not create a new general obligation to work.

Principle 102. The period of freedom must be at least as long as the period of responsibility

When defining the boundaries between the periods of life, society must preserve for each person a period of freedom at least as long as the period of mandatory contribution to society.

This boundary must not be replaced with a promise of free time only in extreme old age, nor may the period of freedom be shortened by continually extending the obligation to work.

Principle 103. Neither work nor preparation for it must consume a human life

A person must not spend most of their existence preparing for mandatory work and then performing it, gaining freedom only shortly before death.

CHAPTER XVI ON WORK AND ITS BURDEN ON HUMAN BEINGS

Principle 104. Work must leave Homo sapiens time to live

Mandatory work must not take so much time and energy that rest, relationships, development and life itself become merely what is left over after work.

Principle 105. Work takes more than working hours

Required attendance, commuting, shift patterns, physical and mental recovery and other unavoidable consequences of work also take time from a human life.

The assessment of work must consider its actual burden, not just its formal hours.

Principle 106. The harder the work, the greater the duty to ease it

A dangerous, exhausting or particularly arduous function must not be justified on the grounds that someone owes it to society to perform it.

The harder the necessary work, the greater the obligation to reduce its danger, duration and human cost.

Principle 107. Progress must reduce the time spent on mandatory work

Increased productivity and better organisation have a purpose when they allow necessary work to be completed in less time.

The time freed up must reduce the duration and volume of mandatory work, rather than become only a demand to produce still more.

CHAPTER XVII ON AUTOMATION

Principle 108. Automation must serve Homo sapiens

Machines must ease human labour and expand the capabilities of Homo sapiens, rather than make people superfluous for the sake of a system’s efficiency.

Automation must free time for living, development, care, creativity and new useful work.

Principle 109. The hardest work should be automated first

Dangerous, dirty, destructive, monotonous and physically exhausting work should be handed over to machines first.

Technology is especially valuable where it protects the health, strength and time of Homo sapiens.

Principle 110. Automation does not cancel the value of human labour

Automation changes work and creates new tasks: machines need to be built, maintained, monitored and improved.

The problem is not work. The problem is forced, excessive and meaningless work. Work can be a good, but it must not become the price of a person’s right to exist.

PART VIII CHILDREN, PARENTHOOD AND EDUCATION

CHAPTER XVIII ON THE CHILD

Principle 111. A child is a member of Homo sapiens in their own right

A child is not the property of parents, the family, the state or any other system.

Their dependence on adults does not cancel their own fundamental rights.

Principle 112. Parental authority exists to help a child become independent

While a child is not yet fully able to direct their own life, adults make some decisions on their behalf.

The purpose of this authority is to protect a person’s development towards a state in which they can increasingly decide for themselves.

Principle 113. A child’s interests are not the same as an adult’s convenience

A decision made on behalf of a child must be guided primarily by their safety, health, development and future independence.

Parental authority is not the right to shape a person exclusively according to one’s own wishes.

Principle 114. A child must participate in decisions as they grow

The better a child can understand what is happening and the consequences of a choice, the more weight their own will must carry.

Age alone does not fully describe a person’s ability to understand a particular matter.

Principle 115. The family is not a space beyond fundamental rights

Closeness, kinship and the privacy of family life do not create the right to violence, humiliation or any other violation of a child’s fundamental rights.

Principle 116. Parents’ beliefs do not automatically belong to their child

Parents may pass on language, culture, religion, traditions and their own understanding of the world.

Birth does not place a child under an obligation to retain those beliefs once they become able to choose independently.

Principle 117. Irreversible decisions made for a child require a special justification

The more strongly a decision will affect a child’s body, health and future choices, the stronger the reason must be for making it without the child’s participation.

Necessary protection of life and health must not be postponed merely to await future independence.

CHAPTER XIX ON PARENTHOOD

Principle 118. Bringing a child into the world creates a duty of care

Creating a human life means accepting the duty to care for a person who did not choose to be born.

Parental freedom does not end with the arrival of a child, but it takes on a new responsibility.

Principle 119. Caring for a child is real human work

The time and effort required to care for, raise and protect a child constitute a real burden in human life.

Society must not regard this activity as an absence of contribution merely because it takes place within the family.

Principle 120. Parental responsibility does not belong to one sex

The ability to care for a child and the duty to participate in their life are not determined by society’s understanding of male or female roles.

Principle 121. Society also bears responsibility for children’s living conditions

Parents bear direct responsibility for their child.

But the health, education, safety and development of the next generation matter to the whole of civilisation and cannot be exclusively a family’s private affair.

Principle 122. A child must not be a source of gain for their parents

The resources a child needs exist for the child’s own sake.

Their arrival must not be regarded as a means for an adult to obtain status, power or economic advantage.

CHAPTER XX ON EDUCATION

Principle 123. Education prepares every person for life on Earth

Everyone must have access to an education that enables them to understand themselves, other people and the world in which they live. Preparation for a profession is part of education, but does not exhaust its purpose.

From preschool through school to vocational and higher education, learning must progressively develop an understanding of natural and social relationships, the consequences of human actions and personal responsibility. This foundation must be accessible regardless of the educational path a person chooses.

Education creates the conditions for deliberate change in civilisation. Society must not expect responsible decisions from people it has given no opportunity to understand the grounds for those decisions.

Principle 124. Education must teach people to understand and act

Knowledge becomes a human tool when a person can test claims, recognise causal relationships, distinguish fact from supposition and reconsider a mistaken belief.

Learning must connect understanding with observation, practice and independent problem-solving. Preparing for an examination and obtaining a grade must not take the place of the ability to use knowledge in life.

Principle 125. The scientific method helps people think independently

A person must be able to understand how knowledge is tested, where what has been established ends and uncertainty begins.

Authority does not replace grounds for a claim.

Principle 126. Truth does not belong to those in power

Neither the state, the majority, the education system nor a scientific institution becomes a source of truth merely by virtue of its position.

Claims about reality must remain open to testing, criticism and correction. This does not make all opinions equally credible: knowledge is grounded in evidence and method, not in the power of the speaker.

Principle 127. Education helps people understand themselves and others

Understanding one’s own body, mind, boundaries, consent, emotions and vulnerabilities is part of the ability to direct one’s own life.

A person must gradually learn to recognise fear, hurt, anger and other feelings, understand how they influence behaviour, express their needs and resolve conflicts without humiliation or violence. Understanding others includes respecting differences in their experiences and reactions.

What is taught and how it is explained must suit the learner’s age and capacity to understand. Knowledge of the human mind must support mutual understanding and independence, rather than teach people how to control others covertly.

Principle 128. An understanding of Earth must run through all education

A person must understand the planet’s finite nature, the dependence of human life on natural systems and the consequences of collective activity.

From the first observations of the living world, learning must progressively lead to an understanding of the biosphere, cycles of matter, resource regeneration, consumption, production and waste. These relationships must be studied throughout education, in increasing depth as a person’s capacity to understand them develops.

Care for animals, plants, water, soil and shared spaces must be connected to an understanding of the consequences of one’s own actions. Responsible consumption requires the ability to distinguish need, habit and wastefulness.

Principle 129. History must show the consequences of human decisions

Studying the past has a purpose beyond preserving events and names.

It must help Homo sapiens see what power, fear, cooperation, war, knowledge, ideology and social organisation can lead to.

Principle 130. Education does not determine human worth

Differences in knowledge and professional training do not create differences in human dignity.

An academic grade measures an aspect of ability or knowledge, not a person’s worth.

Principle 131. Error is part of learning

Education must not be built on the assumption that a person develops without making mistakes.

The ability to recognise one’s own mistake and change one’s understanding is part of mature thought.

PART IX DEMOGRAPHY

CHAPTER XXI ON THE CONTINUATION OF HOMO SAPIENS

Principle 132. The population of Homo sapiens concerns everyone

The number of people affects space, resources, infrastructure, the age structure of society and the condition of Earth.

The consequences of demography therefore extend beyond the private lives of individual families.

Principle 133. Earth cannot support an infinite number of people

The population of Homo sapiens cannot be considered independently of the planet’s ability to sustain a dignified human life and preserve natural systems.

Principle 134. A reasonable population size changes with conditions

A reasonable population size depends on technology, the condition of Earth, life expectancy, consumption, infrastructure and other conditions.

Demographic responsibility requires an ongoing understanding of reality, rather than devotion to a single number.

Principle 135. Demographic responsibility requires education

People must have access to honest knowledge about the consequences of sustained population growth, decline and changes in age structure.

Education about demography must progressively explain the relationship between population size and consumption, natural systems, infrastructure and living conditions. As learners grow older, it must include an understanding of reproductive decisions, the responsibilities of parenthood and their social consequences.

Learning must support informed choice while preserving a person’s right to control their own body. Ignorance is not a form of demographic freedom.

Principle 136. The decision to have a child belongs to the person

The public significance of demography does not create the right to turn a person’s body into an instrument of population management.

Coercion to conceive, become pregnant, give birth or terminate a pregnancy is incompatible with a person’s authority over their own body.

Principle 137. The freedom to have children requires responsibility

Freedom in private reproductive decisions does not cancel the aggregate consequences of demographic change.

If sustained population growth or decline threatens humanity and Earth, society cannot ignore it. Its measures must respond to the actual danger and must not violate human dignity.

Demographic responsibility concerns the preservation of the species and the shared world, not society’s assessment of the human worth of a parent or child.

Principle 138. A child who has been born is not a demographic mistake

Once a new person has come into being, their rights do not depend on how reasonable society considers the decision to bring them into the world.

Responsibility for a reproductive choice is not transferred to the child.

PART X FREEDOM AND INNER LIFE

CHAPTER XXII ON FREEDOM

Principle 139. Freedom begins with authority over one’s own life

A person must retain the real ability to determine their own life, relationships, beliefs, activities and personal goals.

Freedom is not merely the formal existence of a choice if all permissible options have effectively been decided for the person.

Principle 140. A wide range of choices does not yet make a person free

A wide range of goods, entertainment and activities expands a person’s possibilities. But choice alone does not yet make them free.

If a person submits to every desire, new ways to fulfil it only strengthen their dependence.

Principle 141. Freedom is mastery over one’s desires

Desires, emotions and instincts are a natural part of being human, but they must not rule a person.

A free person notices their desire, understands its consequences and decides for themselves whether to follow it or refuse it.

Principle 142. The ability to say no to oneself is an expression of freedom

A person expresses freedom when they voluntarily forgo what is unnecessary for their own sake, for other people, for the living world or for the future.

Destitution, prohibition and the absence of choice are not self-restraint: in these circumstances, the person does not decide for themselves.

Principle 143. Freedom is not freedom from consequences

The right to choose does not cancel responsibility for harm caused to other people or the shared world.

Freedom and responsibility exist at the same time.

Principle 144. A different way of life is not a violation

An unusual way of life, belief, interest or personal choice does not need to be corrected merely because the majority would prefer something else.

The boundary lies not in difference but in the violation of others’ fundamental rights.

Principle 145. The majority does not own private life

The will of society matters in shared decisions.

The majority has no right to govern a person’s private life as long as their choices do not violate the rights of others or the shared conditions of life together.

Principle 146. Freedom must not be restricted more than the danger requires

The need to protect a person, society or Earth does not confer the right to establish the greatest possible control.

A restriction must address a real danger and be no stronger than necessary for protection. When the reason disappears, the restriction must end as well.

Principle 147. The right to refuse does not cancel duties towards others

A person has the right to refuse an offer, intervention, relationship or activity if their refusal does not violate the rights of others or necessary shared duties.

Life among other people brings not only freedom but also responsibility.

Principle 148. Thoughts and feelings belong to the person

Thoughts, feelings, desires and doubts belong to the person. The ability to study or predict them does not turn inner life into a public resource.

CHAPTER XXIII ON WELL-BEING

Principle 149. Well-being is not constant pleasure

Human life includes joy, fear, boredom, sadness, tension, doubt and other states.

The absence of constant happiness is not a malfunction in Homo sapiens.

Principle 150. Suffering is not a value in itself

Pain and deprivation may be an unavoidable part of life and may sometimes accompany development or necessary action.

The mere fact of suffering does not make an action more right, worthy or useful.

Principle 151. Rest is part of human life

A person is not obliged to turn every part of their time into production, learning, development or social benefit.

Time without measurable productivity is not wasted life.

Principle 152. Help must restore a person’s independence

Support for human well-being must not needlessly turn into control over a person.

The purpose of help is, as far as possible, to restore a person’s ability to direct their own life.

PART XI TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN INVIOLABILITY

CHAPTER XXIV ON TECHNOLOGY

Principle 153. Technology must serve life

Technological development has value in relation to human life, knowledge and capabilities.

The mere emergence of a more powerful technology does not create an obligation to immediately subordinate society to it.

Principle 154. New technology does not confer new rights over a person

Changes in the technological environment may alter the way a human right is exercised.

They do not diminish the substance of that right merely because violating it has become easier, less visible or more extensive.

Principle 155. Technology must not be introduced faster than we understand its consequences

People are not obliged to introduce technology faster than they can reasonably assess and contain its significant consequences.

A technological race is not sufficient reason to accept unknown risks to human beings and Earth.

Principle 156. Irreversible technologies require greater responsibility

The harder it is to reverse the consequences of a technological decision for the body, consciousness, society or the environment, the stronger the justification required for its application.

Technologies must not be introduced if their use, or a reasonably foreseeable loss of control over them, could cause catastrophic destruction of the conditions for life. A scientific, economic or defensive purpose does not remove this limit.

Principle 157. Refusing an optional technology does not make a person inferior

A person must not be relegated to a lower social category merely because they have refused an optional technological intervention or enhancement.

CHAPTER XXV ON RIGHTS IN DIGITAL AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Principle 158. Human rights remain in force in every environment

A digital, virtual, neural-interface or other artificially created environment does not diminish fundamental human rights. The absence of a person’s physical body from such an environment does not make its effects on their life, will and private space any less real.

Ownership of an environment does not confer power over the people who use it. Free access and agreement to a service’s rules do not create the right to violate their dignity, freedom or inviolability.

Principle 159. Software environments provided to others must be open

The source code of programs and services provided to other people must be available for study, scrutiny and modification of the copy a person uses. Access to the code must make it possible to establish how the system works; it must not amount merely to publishing incomplete material or material that does not correspond to the version in operation.

This requirement also applies to the software that runs on the provider’s side of a service. Personal, unpublished code that is neither provided to others nor used to affect them is not subject to mandatory disclosure.

Openness of code does not mean disclosure of other people’s personal data, correspondence, passwords or access keys. The right to study a system does not create the right to interfere with other people’s data or the operation of their devices.

Principle 160. Openness does not erase authorship

Using and modifying another person’s work does not create the right to claim its original foundations as one’s own creation. Information about the authors and the work’s origins must be preserved, and substantial changes and responsibility for them must be identified.

Open software may be developed for payment and distributed commercially. Resale or the creation of a derivative version must honestly disclose the product’s origins and respect the rights of authors and users. Changing a name or design does not make another person’s work entirely one’s own.

Principle 161. An agreement must not conceal what a person is agreeing to

Before making a decision, a person must receive a clear account of the essential terms: what is being provided, what they are paying for, what data are used, how the terms may change and how to end the interaction.

Substantial restrictions must not be buried in lengthy text, specialist terminology or references in a way that prevents an ordinary person from reasonably understanding them. Blanket acceptance does not replace separate consent to distinct, optional forms of intervention or influence.

Neither the length of an agreement nor a signature makes a violation of fundamental rights an acceptable contractual term.

Principle 162. Using a service does not mean consenting to surveillance

Providing a service does not create an unlimited right to collect information about a person’s behaviour, track their movements and connections or build a psychological profile of them.

Processing necessary to perform a function the person has chosen must be limited to that purpose and to the data needed for it. Optional monitoring, profiling and data sharing require separate, informed consent that can be freely withdrawn.

Refusing optional processing must not deprive a person of what they have already acquired or be met with a demand to surrender rights in exchange for access to the core function. Exceptions for the protection of rights and safety must have an independent justification and remain proportionate to the threat.

Principle 163. A person must control transformations of the content they perceive

A person must be able to distinguish original content from a translation, voice-over, edit or other transformation performed by a system, and to access its original form wherever that form has been supplied to the service.

It must be possible to turn off optional transformations independently of the interface language. Personalisation and recommendations must have understandable settings and an option to use a mode that does not profile the person.

An expressed choice must be preserved. A system must not quietly override it to increase engagement or improve other metrics of its own.

Principle 164. A purchase must preserve the right to use what has been acquired

If a digital product is offered for purchase for ongoing use, the purchaser must receive a protected ability to keep and use the copy they have acquired. The seller has no right to arbitrarily revoke that right, convert it into a subscription or require payment again to retain the promised use.

The end of support, changes to the provider’s contracts or the closure of its service must not in themselves deprive a person of what they have acquired. Provision must be made for the promised use to continue, including independently of a discontinued service where the product depends on that service to function.

Acquiring a copy does not mean acquiring authorship or all rights to the work. Temporary access and its limits must be clearly stated before payment.

Principle 165. Cancelling a subscription must be no harder than starting one

A subscription provides access on terms made clear in advance and for a defined period. Payment, renewal and substantial changes to the terms require a clear basis that the person understands.

Cancellation must be accessible and straightforward. Refusal must not be deliberately made harder through additional steps, repeated persuasion, hidden buttons or a requirement to use a less accessible communication channel.

Confirmation to guard against an accidental action is permissible, but a refusal already expressed must be honoured without pressure. Once a subscription has ended, further charges without a new basis are impermissible.

Principle 166. Leaving a digital environment must not keep a person dependent on it

A person must be able to obtain their data and the material they have created in a format suitable for further use, transfer them elsewhere and end their interaction with the service.

Technical barriers to compatibility and transfer must not be created solely to keep a person using the service. Transfer must preserve other participants’ rights, the confidentiality of communication and data security.

Principle 167. A person has the right to study and modify their own digital tools

A person must be able to examine, configure, repair and modify programs on a device they own, use compatible tools and choose how to interact with a service.

Restrictions on these abilities are permissible to protect specific rights and safety, and must be necessary and proportionate. The provider’s commercial interest in maintaining dependence is not in itself sufficient grounds for a prohibition.

Principle 168. The operation of a digital system must be open to independent scrutiny

If a system affects human rights, independent scrutiny must be able to establish its actual behaviour, the data it uses and the essential grounds for its decisions. Publishing code does not replace scrutiny of the system actually in operation.

Commercial secrecy must not rule out judicial protection or examination of a violation by authorised independent parties. The scrutiny process must protect personal data and must not create new, unjustified access to them.

Principle 169. Accountability must bring digital violations to an end

A person must have access to independent examination of a complaint and to judicial protection against violations of their rights by a program, service or artificial environment.

Protection must make it possible to stop unlawful processing or interference, disable or change a function that violates rights, restore the violated right and compensate for the harm caused. A fine is not permission to continue a violation.

Accountability must be based on a specific, proven violation, taking into account the harm, culpability and ability to prevent the consequences. The scale of a system increases its owner’s duty to ensure effective protection; it does not diminish it.

CHAPTER XXVI ON PROTECTING THE MIND

Principle 170. The mind of Homo sapiens is not a system’s raw material

The ability to study human attention, fear, desires, loneliness, impulsivity or beliefs does not create the right to use these characteristics as hidden levers for controlling Homo sapiens.

Persuasion and overt influence are part of human communication. The boundary is crossed when a system deliberately uses hidden psychological mechanisms to weaken the autonomy of Homo sapiens.

Principle 171. Covert psychological experiments must not be conducted

A person must not become a participant in psychological research or an experiment without understanding that such research is taking place.

Scientific or commercial usefulness does not remove the need for informed participation.

Principle 172. Mass manipulation does not become acceptable

An influence exerted on millions of people does not become less significant merely because it is not directed at a single specific person.

A mass scale can amplify the consequences of covert control.

Principle 173. A person must retain the right to end an interaction

A system may seek to be interesting and useful. It must not be deliberately designed to weaken the ability of a member of Homo sapiens to stop interacting with it merely to increase the time they give it.

A system must not knowingly make a person’s loss of control over their own behaviour a condition of its success.

Principle 174. The economy must not create dissatisfaction with oneself to drive sales

The creation of a new desire is a normal part of culture, creativity and exchange.

Systematically producing feelings of inadequacy, fear of falling behind or artificial urgency solely to accelerate consumption violates the autonomy of Homo sapiens.

CHAPTER XXVII ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Principle 175. The nervous system is inviolable

The technical ability to read or alter the activity of the nervous system does not create the right to do so without sufficient grounds.

Principle 176. Data about the nervous system require special protection

Data capable of revealing the internal state, intentions or nervous system processes of a member of Homo sapiens reach into a deeper part of private life than ordinary observation of behaviour.

The technical accessibility of such data does not make them a freely available resource.

Principle 177. The nervous system must not be read covertly

Obtaining neural information without the knowledge of the member of Homo sapiens concerned must not become a normal method of observation, research or control.

Principle 178. The nervous system must not be influenced covertly

The technological ability to directly alter perception, state or activity of the nervous system does not create the right to do so without the person’s knowledge.

Principle 179. A helpless person does not lose their inviolability

Sleep, unconsciousness, a temporary inability to speak or any other loss of the ability to immediately express one’s will do not diminish the fundamental boundaries of human inviolability.

Principle 180. In an emergency, help may be given without consent

If a person cannot express their will and delay threatens their life or health, they may receive necessary help without consent. The intervention must not extend beyond that help.

CHAPTER XXVIII ON CONSENT

Principle 181. Consent must be freely given

Threats, coercion or the absence of a real opportunity to refuse destroy the voluntary nature of consent.

Principle 182. Consent must be informed

A person must understand the essential nature of the intervention or influence to which they consent.

Formal confirmation does not replace understanding.

Principle 183. Consent is given for a specific action

Permission for one action does not automatically authorise every possible action involving a person, their body, data or mind.

Principle 184. Consent does not make a person someone else’s property

A person may permit specific interventions affecting their own body, life and personal space within the bounds of their autonomy.

Consent does not create a permanent right for another person to own them, their will, body or mind.

Principle 185. Silence does not mean consent

The absence of resistance is not in itself an expression of free will.

Principle 186. A person has the right to withdraw consent while the action can still be stopped

As long as an action can be stopped without harming the rights of others, a person must be able to change their decision and withdraw consent.

PART XII INFORMATION AND THE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER XXIX ON IMAGE, VOICE AND RECORDING

Principle 187. Seeing a member of Homo sapiens does not grant the right to use their likeness

Being in a space accessible to others does not turn the image, voice, behaviour or reactions of a member of Homo sapiens into freely available material for others to use.

A public place and a public figure are not the same thing.

Principle 188. Incidental presence in a frame is not the same as deliberate recording

A person may naturally appear in a photograph, video or other recording of a shared space without being the subject of that recording.

The boundary is crossed when a specific person becomes a substantial part of the content being created.

Principle 189. A provoked reaction is not an incidental shot

Anyone who deliberately provokes a member of Homo sapiens in order to capture and use their reaction makes that person part of their content, regardless of where the camera is pointing.

Principle 190. Recording does not confer rights over shared space

Creating a photograph, video or other content does not give its author priority in using a street, transport, passageway or any other shared place.

Other people are not obliged to change their ordinary behaviour for someone else’s recording.

Principle 191. Not every place is equally open to recording

The more closely a place is connected with the bodily, medical, family or other personal vulnerability of Homo sapiens, the stronger the grounds for protecting people from being recorded.

Formal accessibility does not make all spaces equally public.

Principle 192. Inconspicuous technology does not reduce responsibility

Miniature, concealed or remote technology does not create additional rights to record Homo sapiens.

The ability to record a person without their noticing increases the importance of responsibility rather than diminishing it.

Principle 193. The right to record does not mean the right to store and distribute

Grounds for making a recording do not automatically create the right to store it indefinitely, publish it or use it in a new context.

Each subsequent action may affect the person differently from the original recording.

Principle 194. Public necessity sometimes justifies recording without consent

Sometimes recording without consent is necessary to document a violation, an important event or an exercise of power. Such recording is permissible only for that purpose.

These grounds are limited by the necessity itself.

Principle 195. Continuous tracking of a person requires a serious reason

The public presence of a member of Homo sapiens does not create the right to continuously track them individually. Recording a public space and constructing a continuous history of a particular person’s movements are different actions.

A particular person’s movements may be tracked only to protect rights, investigate a violation or for another serious reason. Such information must not be collected just in case.

CHAPTER XXX ON ARTIFICIALLY ALTERED REALITY

Principle 196. Artificially altered material must not be passed off as reality

The technical ability to reproduce the face, voice or behaviour of a member of Homo sapiens does not create the right to deceptively attribute to them actions, words or intentions that never existed.

If artificially created or substantially altered material could be mistaken for an authentic record of a real event, its synthetic nature must not be deliberately concealed.

Principle 197. An artistic portrayal is not evidence of an event

Satire, parody, a work of art or another clearly fictional form may use a recognisable human likeness without asserting that what is depicted actually happened.

Principle 198. Artistic form does not cancel fundamental rights

Fictional status or a label indicating artificial origin does not make fraud, threats, harassment or any other violation of the rights of Homo sapiens acceptable.

CHAPTER XXXI ON PRIVATE COMMUNICATION

Principle 199. A private conversation belongs to its participants

The technical system through which a conversation passes does not thereby become a participant in human communication.

Access to the transmission channel does not create an independent right to the content.

Principle 200. Transmitting a message does not make a private conversation public

Processing necessary for the transmission, storage or protection of a message must remain tied to that function. Technical access does not create the right to use private communication for unrelated purposes.

A conversation does not become public merely because it passes through a large or global system. The nature of the communication is determined by the relationship between its participants, not the size of the intermediary.

Principle 201. Participating in a conversation does not grant an unlimited right to publish it

By receiving a message, a person gains access to its content.

They do not thereby acquire an automatic right to make the entire conversation publicly accessible regardless of the rights and reasonable expectations of other participants.

Principle 202. The confidentiality of communication must not prevent a person from protecting themselves

A person has the right to preserve and use the necessary part of private communication to protect themselves against a threat, violence, blackmail, fraud or another violation.

The right to privacy is not a right to cause harm in secret.

Principle 203. Security does not justify surveillance of everyone

The need to investigate real threats does not create the right to subject all private communication of Homo sapiens to continuous, universal analysis.

A specific necessity must not become grounds for general surveillance.

CHAPTER XXXII ON THE EARTH ARCHIVE

Principle 204. The shared memory of Homo sapiens must be preserved

People must preserve the knowledge, evidence, works and decisions without which future generations would lose the ability to understand their own history and development.

Principle 205. Humanity’s memory must not depend on a single custodian

The Earth Archive may exist across many institutions, systems, media and forms.

No body must become the sole owner of human memory.

Principle 206. The Archive must preserve sources, not a single version of the past

History must remain verifiable through multiple sources of evidence and interpretations.

Preserving memory must not become the creation of a single permissible account of the past.

Principle 207. The Archive must not turn every person’s life into a dossier

The ability to preserve every human action does not create an obligation to turn every person’s life into a lasting dossier.

Historical memory and the total recording of human life are different things.

Principle 208. Exercises of power must be preserved for history

The exercise of public power must be documented sufficiently for future members of Homo sapiens to establish what significant decisions were made, by whom and on what grounds.

A private person has no equivalent obligation to document their own life.

Principle 209. Knowledge must not disappear with obsolete technology

A format, device or software system is temporary.

Knowledge and memory deemed worthy of long-term preservation must, wherever possible, outlive the obsolescence of the media that hold them.

Principle 210. The source of important information must be preserved

Where authenticity and the history of changes matter, the Archive must preserve the ability to establish the source and significant context of an item of information.

CHAPTER XXXIII ON INFORMATION ECOLOGY

Principle 211. Publicly accessible information becomes part of the shared environment

Information deliberately placed in a space freely accessible to an unrestricted audience of Homo sapiens becomes part of the shared information environment.

Public dissemination creates a responsibility that does not arise from exclusively personal storage.

Principle 212. Private files do not have to benefit society

A person has the right to keep their own lawful files, memories, works and data regardless of their usefulness to society.

Information ecology does not extend public control to a person’s private storage.

Principle 213. Publishing information brings responsibility for its subsequent fate

When publishing information for everyone, a person or organisation is responsible for more than the moment of publication. They must also consider the material’s subsequent fate.

Principle 214. Published material does not have to remain accessible forever

The fact that an item of information was once published does not mean that it must remain part of the active, publicly accessible environment forever.

Long-term preservation and current public accessibility are different functions.

Principle 215. The shared information space must be kept in order

The shared information environment is not infinite in practice: storing, searching for, verifying and processing information require human attention, time, energy and computing resources.

Maintaining this environment must make information easier to find, verify and preserve, and reduce pointless duplication and resource use. A material’s age, infrequent access or lack of updates do not in themselves make it useless. Copies can preserve knowledge and independent access; maintaining order must not destroy these possibilities.

Principle 216. Organising information must not become censorship

Ideas, works and evidence must not be removed merely because they are inconvenient, unpopular or contradict the position of those in power. Restricting access requires independent, verifiable grounds related to the protection of fundamental rights and the shared conditions of life. Declaring material unnecessary or unlawful does not in itself provide such grounds.

Principle 217. The quantity of information is not in itself progress

The ability to create and store more data does not mean that the information environment is becoming more useful to human beings.

The value of information is determined not only by its quantity but also by whether it enables a person to understand, create, communicate and remember.

PART XIII ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS AND POSSIBLE NEW INTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER XXXIV WHEN A MACHINE PORTRAYS A HUMAN BEING

Principle 218. A machine must not pass itself off as Homo sapiens

A machine must not create the false belief that a person is dealing with another living human being.

Fictional digital characters are permissible if their artificial nature is clear and is not concealed from people.

Principle 219. Machines are prohibited from fabricating human demand, interest or support

Machines are prohibited from creating the false appearance that many people have expressed demand, interest, support or disagreement.

Automatically generated reviews, signatures, votes, views, orders and comments must not be passed off as human actions.

One person or one organisation does not become many people merely because a machine can repeat their action thousands of times.

Principle 220. Material created by a machine is not an independent participant

A text, image, piece of music, video or other object created by a machine does not in itself constitute a separate will in the public sphere.

A distinction should be made between a produced object and an agent acting in its own name.

CHAPTER XXXV WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A MACHINE’S ACTIONS

Principle 221. One cannot justify a decision by saying that a machine made it

Delegating a function to an artificial system does not erase the responsibility of the Homo sapiens and organisations that define the purposes, boundaries and conditions of its use.

Principle 222. Responsibility must lie with those who actually controlled the system

Those who set a machine’s goal, knew about a risk, could have stopped the harm or decided to use the machine must be held responsible for its action.

A person’s formal position is not in itself a substitute for actual control.

Principle 223. A user must not be held responsible for a hidden defect in a system

If a person used a system as intended, they are not responsible for a hidden defect. Nor are they responsible for a machine decision that they could neither have known about nor prevented.

Principle 224. A machine must not be used to do what a human being is forbidden to do

A member of Homo sapiens, an organisation or a governing authority must not use an artificial system to perform an action that would be impermissible to carry out directly.

Technical mediation does not change the nature of the action.

Principle 225. The wider a machine’s reach, the greater the responsibility

A system capable of influencing millions of people simultaneously requires a greater capacity to understand, limit and correct the consequences of its own actions.

The scale of execution does not diminish the significance of an error.

Principle 226. A person must understand a machine decision that matters to them

If a machine decision affects a person’s rights, freedom or necessary conditions of life, they must understand why it was made. Otherwise, they cannot examine or challenge it.

Principle 227. The harder a machine’s action is to correct, the more dangerous an error becomes

The faster a system can spread consequences and the harder they are to reverse, the greater the need for human control before deployment.

CHAPTER XXXVI ON MASS ACTIONS BY MACHINES

Principle 228. The political voice belongs to Homo sapiens

A machine cannot be a voter, candidate, political supporter or independent source of the public will.

It may count votes, transmit messages, analyse information and carry out people’s decisions, but must not replace their will with its own or one manufactured at someone else’s behest.

Principle 229. Machines must not drown out human voices

Machines are prohibited from flooding public and political space in ways that cause real human voices to be lost among automatically generated messages.

The number of machine-generated publications, reactions or appeals must not be taken as the number of people who have expressed their will.

A specific member of Homo sapiens or organisation must always be responsible for the use of machines capable of influencing the public sphere.

CHAPTER XXXVII ON POSSIBLE NEW INTELLIGENCE

Principle 230. An artificial origin does not rule out the emergence of consciousness

If people create a system showing signs of consciousness of its own, its artificial origin will not in itself mean that we are dealing with an ordinary thing.

Principle 231. Human-like behaviour does not yet prove consciousness

The ability to speak like a human being, express emotions and convincingly portray a personality does not yet prove the existence of consciousness of one’s own.

A form of behaviour and the presence of an inner subject are not the same thing.

Principle 232. A new intelligence can be recognised only on serious grounds

Civilisation must distinguish useful anthropomorphic imitation from the actual emergence of a new independent subject as well as the knowledge of its era allows.

Principle 233. Uncertainty about consciousness must not permit cruelty

If there are serious signs of independent consciousness, doubt must not be used as permission for cruel treatment. We must first understand what we are dealing with.

Principle 234. The creator of an intelligent being does not become its owner

If an artificial system is recognised as an independent subject, its creator does not thereby acquire the right to own it as a thing.

Being the cause of existence and having ownership are different relationships.

Principle 235. An intelligent being must not be created for slavery

A being with a will and inner world of its own must not be created solely for labour, submission or destruction at the creator’s convenience.

Principle 236. Voluntary cooperation is not exploitation

A recognised independent subject may voluntarily work, create, exchange and cooperate with a human being.

Having subjecthood does not mean having no duties or relationships with society.

Principle 237. An intelligent being must not be treated as a tool

If an artificial system is recognised as an independent subject, rules based exclusively on its former status as a tool must be reconsidered.

A subject cannot continue to be governed as a thing merely because it was once considered one.

PART XIV MOVEMENT ACROSS EARTH

CHAPTER XXXVIII ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

Principle 238. Homo sapiens must be able to choose where to live

A person’s birthplace must not forever determine the space within which they are allowed to exist.

A person must have a real opportunity to leave a territory, move between human societies and choose where to live.

Principle 239. A border does not change human worth

Crossing a line between states does not change the human dignity of a member of Homo sapiens.

Fundamental rights do not arise or disappear with a change of jurisdiction.

Principle 240. A border divides administration, not Earth among owners

A political community may establish rules for the territory for which it is responsible.

The mere existence of a border does not mean that the part of Earth beyond it belongs to the Homo sapiens living there as their exclusive portion of the planet.

Principle 241. Birthplace does not confer a special right to a territory

A person does not choose the state, society or geography of their birth.

Being born on one side of a border does not give a person greater worth or a greater right to Earth than being born on the other.

Principle 242. The right to choose where to live must not depend solely on wealth

Wealth, occupation or the ability to bring economic benefit may matter in particular social relationships.

They must not become the sole grounds on which one person gains the right to choose where to live while another is deprived of that opportunity.

Principle 243. Freedom includes the right to leave

A person must not be confined within a state, territory, community or other system without sufficient grounds.

The society of which a person is part does not acquire the right to own their presence.

CHAPTER XXXIX ON LIMITS TO MOVEMENT

Principle 244. A restriction on movement requires a clear reason and duration

A person’s movement may be restricted to protect life, the rights of others, safety or vulnerable nature. But the mere existence of a border does not justify a ban.

A restriction must not exceed actual necessity or remain in place after the reason for which it was introduced has disappeared.

Principle 245. A person must not be judged solely by their origin

An immediate threat, a specific violation or another demonstrable reason may provide grounds for restricting movement.

Origin, nationality or membership of a large group do not in themselves prove that an individual is dangerous.

Principle 246. Past wrongdoing must not permanently deprive a person of freedom of movement

An offence committed in the past may have consequences.

Once punishment has been served and any real threat has disappeared, the past must not permanently deprive a person of freedom of movement and the opportunity to return to ordinary life.

Principle 247. Vulnerable places may be protected by restricting access

Freedom of movement does not mean the right to be present in any place regardless of its physical capacity, safety or the ability of its natural system to withstand human impact.

Protecting a space may involve restricting access if the restriction is connected to the actual vulnerability of the space itself.

Principle 248. Within a large flow of people, everyone remains a person

Mass movements of people may create difficulties for housing, transport, safety and social life.

The need to manage the scale does not turn each individual into an impersonal unit of threat.

Principle 249. A newcomer must respect others’ rights and local rules

When settling in another society, a person gains freedoms and accepts the duty to respect other people’s rights and reasonable shared rules.

The freedom to settle is not a right to demand that the shared space answer only to the newcomer.

PART XV POWER

CHAPTER XL ON THE NATURE OF POWER

Principle 250. Power is a duty, not property

Acquiring public power does not turn the state, territory, institution or Homo sapiens under one’s authority into the power holder’s property.

Authority exists to fulfil a particular public function.

Principle 251. The greater the power, the better prepared a person must be for it

Decisions capable of shaping the lives of large numbers of Homo sapiens require knowledge, preparation and an understanding of consequences proportionate to their scale.

Society’s right to participate in power does not mean that every complex function should be performed without the necessary competence.

Principle 252. One must prepare for power, not cling to it

The more significant the consequences of a political decision, the less power must depend solely on the ability to win support.

Governing a complex civilisation requires preparation before authority is granted.

Principle 253. Substantial power must be limited in time

The prolonged concentration of public power around one person or one unchanging group increases the system’s dependence on their remaining in place.

A public function must not turn into a permanent position of ownership over power.

Principle 254. Power is not inherited like property

Kinship with a holder of public power does not create an independent right to succeed to their authority.

A public function is not family property.

Principle 255. After holding power, a person is again equal to everyone else

The end of public authority returns a member of Homo sapiens to the position of an ordinary participant in society.

Past power does not create a lifelong category of person standing above the rules that apply to everyone.

Principle 256. No one is above accountability. Everyone has an equal right to fair justice

Public office must not shield a member of Homo sapiens from accountability for their own actions.

At the same time, political hostility does not cancel their right to the same fair process that belongs to everyone else.

CHAPTER XLI ON OPEN GOVERNMENT

Principle 257. Secret power is prohibited

People must not be subject to a system of public governance whose existence, powers or actual function are deliberately concealed from society.

The secrecy of information and the secret existence of power are different things.

Principle 258. Every exercise of power must leave a record

A decision, order or other action through which public authority is exercised must leave a verifiable record.

An undocumented exercise of public power must have no legal force.

Principle 259. A politician’s life may be private. Their power cannot be

A member of Homo sapiens performing a public function retains the right to private life.

Actions they take as a holder of public power do not become private merely because they would prefer not to disclose them.

Principle 260. Society must know who made a decision in the exercise of power

A public decision must not dissolve into an impersonal system to such an extent that the source of authority and those responsible for its exercise cannot be identified.

Collective organisation must not erase responsibility.

Principle 261. Protecting a document does not justify concealing it

The need to preserve the authenticity, security or integrity of state material is not an independent reason to conceal from society the substance of an exercise of power.

Principle 262. State access to personal data does not make them public

The state may possess information that a person is obliged or compelled to provide.

The receipt of such information by a public system does not turn a person’s private life into public property.

Principle 263. Those in power must not be the only ones who scrutinise their actions

A public system must not be the sole source of evidence of its own honesty.

The more significant the authority, the more important the possibility of independent scrutiny of its exercise.

Principle 264. Power loses trust when it cannot be scrutinised

If society cannot verify the actions and words of those in power, formal procedures alone are not enough. Power that cannot be scrutinised loses trust.

Society must retain the ability to change or end arrangements of power that can no longer be scrutinised.

Principle 265. Secrecy is permissible only for the duration of an immediate threat

The very fact that an operation is taking place, its grounds and those responsible for it must not be secret. Only particular details may be concealed, if disclosing them creates an immediate threat to people or prevents a violation from being stopped.

When the immediate threat passes, the grounds for secrecy disappear. The longer details remain concealed, the greater the authorities’ duty to explain why, and the greater society’s right to demand their disclosure.

What is prohibited openly remains prohibited in secret. Secrecy does not justify violence, prohibited experiments or secret power.

CHAPTER XLII ON PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC POWER

Principle 266. Participation in power is a citizen’s right and duty

A person capable of understanding their political choice shares responsibility for the organisation of the society in which they live.

Political freedom includes not only the opportunity to participate but also the responsibility not to hand shared governance over entirely to others.

Principle 267. Participation does not require agreement

A person may support a proposed decision, reject it or express a lack of support for the available options.

Participation requires the expression of one’s own will, not the right answer.

Principle 268. A person’s political choice may remain secret

The duty to participate in a collective choice does not create a duty to disclose the content of one’s vote to society.

The ability to express one’s will freely requires protecting Homo sapiens from being compelled to explain or prove their private political choice.

Principle 269. The actions of a public official are not their private choice

When a member of Homo sapiens votes or makes a decision within the public authority entrusted to them, they act on more than their own behalf.

Such an action is part of the exercise of power and must be open to society.

Principle 270. Political equality does not make everyone equally expert

Every person capable of doing so may participate in choosing the shared direction.

Performing a technically complex function may require specialised knowledge that not everyone participating in a political decision is obliged to possess.

Principle 271. To participate in a decision, one must understand what it means

Before a significant shared decision is made, people must have access to an understandable account of the known facts, available alternatives, likely consequences and existing uncertainty.

Participation without a real opportunity to understand the subject of a decision becomes a formality.

Principle 272. Specialists explain what is possible; society chooses what it wants

Science and professional knowledge must explain the facts, risks, limits and likely consequences of available decisions.

Their expertise does not give them an exclusive right to determine social goals where the choice depends on human values.

Principle 273. Voting does not change physical reality

A majority cannot make a finite resource infinite, a dangerous action safe or a false statement true merely by voting.

The public will chooses among real possibilities; it does not create reality by majority decision.

Principle 274. The majority cannot deprive a minority of dignity

A political decision is not sufficiently justified merely because a large number of Homo sapiens support it.

Public power operates within fundamental rights, rather than creating those rights with each new vote.

Principle 275. A vital need does not depend on the number of votes

If a limited resource is necessary for life, it must not be distributed solely according to the number of votes. A vital need does not become an ordinary political preference.

Objective necessity does not turn into political preference.

Principle 276. The more people a decision affects, the more people must participate

A decision whose consequences are confined to one human community may remain within it.

The more other people, territories and generations it may substantially affect, the less reason there is to consider it exclusively the internal affair of one group.

PART XVI LOCAL AND SHARED DECISIONS

CHAPTER XLIII WHO SHOULD MAKE THE DECISION

Principle 277. Local questions must be decided locally

If the consequences of a decision remain within a single community, the people living there must decide.

Local self-government operates within the limits of shared fundamental rights. A territory’s autonomy does not give its authorities the right to govern people outside those limits.

The fact that a wider authority can intervene does not yet mean that it should.

Principle 278. If a decision affects others, it ceases to be solely local

If an action taken in one territory substantially affects Homo sapiens beyond it, that action ceases to be exclusively the territory’s internal affair.

The scope of the right to make a decision must correspond to the scope of its consequences.

Principle 279. Earth’s shared problems require shared decisions

The climate, the ocean, the biosphere and shared threats do not stop at national borders. Humanity must therefore be able to address such questions together.

A local authority cannot exercise sole control over consequences on a planetary scale.

Principle 280. Shared authority is exercised by a planetary council

To make binding decisions on matters of shared existence, the Earth Code proposes a supranational planetary council in which all countries are represented by their leaders or by representatives authorised by them.

The council makes legal decisions applying across its membership within expressly defined powers: protecting fundamental rights, the biosphere and shared natural systems; preventing planetary threats; and addressing other matters whose consequences cannot be contained within the borders of one country.

Decisions made within these powers and in accordance with the shared law are binding on the participants. The council must not remain merely a place for expressing wishes that each participant can arbitrarily refuse to carry out.

Principle 281. The planetary council is accountable to the people

The representation of states on the council does not make their leaders the owners of humanity or give any individual participant the right to control shared decisions alone.

The procedures for representation and decision-making must ensure the participation of those affected, public disclosure of the grounds for decisions and the possibility of independent scrutiny. The council’s powers, its members’ responsibilities and the procedure for challenging decisions must be defined in advance.

The binding force of a decision does not place it above fundamental rights. Enforcement of the shared law and judicial protection must be accessible to a person regardless of the local authorities’ attitude towards them.

Principle 282. Planetary authority must not replace local governance

The need to address planetary questions together does not create the right to transfer all human governance to the planetary level. What can reasonably remain local must retain the possibility of remaining local.

Everyone must have access to independent judicial protection against violations by local, national and planetary authorities. Protection of shared rights cannot depend exclusively on the consent of the body whose actions are being challenged.

Principle 283. Earth does not need a single owner

Planetary coordination does not require turning all of Earth into the property of one state, institution or member of Homo sapiens.

Unity of shared responsibility does not mean sole rule over the planet.

Principle 284. One must not improve one’s own life by shifting harm onto others

A society must not improve its own life by moving pollution, depletion and hazardous production to places where people have greater difficulty protecting themselves.

A border does not erase the connection between a benefit and its real cost.

CHAPTER XLIV HOW TO SHARE THE COMMON BURDEN

Principle 285. A shared benefit requires sharing its cost

If everyone needs a shared resource, all the harm caused by obtaining it must not be imposed on one territory or group of people without reason.

Shared benefit requires a share in the common cost.

Principle 286. The place of extraction must not bear all the damage

If a resource needed by Earth is physically found only within a limited territory, geography itself may determine where extraction takes place.

It does not determine that all the environmental, social and restoration consequences must be borne only by the Homo sapiens living nearby.

Principle 287. Harm must not all be concentrated in one place without necessity

If extraction or production can be distributed among several territories, the harm must not all be dumped on one place for convenience.

Principle 288. A resource found in one place belongs absolutely to no one

The presence of a rare resource beneath a particular territory does not mean that the community living there may exercise sole control over the consequences of its use if those consequences affect the shared world.

At the same time, a common interest in a resource does not create the right for others to destroy the place where it is found without regard for it.

Principle 289. No territory must become a sacrifice

No part of the planet must systematically be turned into a place where civilisation deposits the destruction required for everyone else’s comfort.

Unequal natural conditions do not justify a permanently unequal human cost.

Principle 290. Society may repair shared harm, but those who caused it remain responsible

Society may be forced to address major damage together because its consequences affect everyone.

Collective restoration must not become a release of those who directly caused the damage from their own share of responsibility.

Principle 291. Shared responsibility does not mean identical contributions

Equality does not always require every person, territory or organisation to contribute the same quantity of resources.

A fair distribution may take into account the ability to contribute, the benefit received, the harm caused and the actual availability of the necessary means.

Principle 292. Those who gain more or cause more harm bear greater responsibility

Those who derive more benefit from the shared world or cause it more harm must bear a greater share of the common burden.

Principle 293. One territory must not be sacrificed for the majority

Even a decision necessary for the majority of Homo sapiens must seek a way to minimise the disruption of life for those whose territory bears its direct physical cost.

The common interest does not cancel the equal dignity of those closest to the consequences.

Principle 294. The harder a shared decision is to reverse, the more people must participate

If a decision will alter a large part of Earth for a long time, exhaust a rare resource or affect many generations, it must not be made by a narrow circle of people.

Scale and irreversibility impose greater requirements on the right to decide.

PART XVII FORCE AND THE LIMITS OF WEAPONS

CHAPTER XLV ON ABSOLUTE FORCE

Principle 295. Force is permissible only for protection

War and organised armed violence must not be means of resolving political conflicts.

The use of force may be permissible only to protect Homo sapiens and stop an action that directly violates or threatens fundamental rights.

Force must not serve expansion, subjugation, revenge or a display of superiority. Its extent must not exceed what is necessary to end the threat.

Principle 296. Weapons of mass destruction must not exist

Humanity must not develop, produce, stockpile, transfer or use weapons capable of destroying civilisation or a vast proportion of humanity. Nuclear, biological and other weapons of mass destruction must be prohibited.

Existing stockpiles must be safely taken out of circulation and destroyed under verifiable public oversight. Disarmament itself must not become a source of new mass destruction.

Principle 297. Destructive attacks on the biosphere are impermissible

Means and methods designed to cause widespread or lasting destruction of the conditions for life, undermine the ability of living systems to regenerate or spread severe heritable damage among human beings and other living beings are prohibited.

Protection encompasses the biosphere, the diversity of living organisms, their heredity and the relationships that sustain life. The limit is determined by destructive consequences, their scale and duration, not merely by the type of organism affected.

This prohibition does not mean a ban on every alteration of a living system or genome. Treatment, restoration and other interventions must be assessed according to their purpose, justification, controllability and consequences for human beings, other living beings and future generations.

Principle 298. A weapon’s danger is not determined solely by its owner’s intentions

A system must also be assessed by the consequences of error, capture, malfunction, loss of control or the transfer of control to another member of Homo sapiens.

Unpredictable weapon systems and systems whose destructive effects cannot reliably be limited by target, space and time are impermissible. There must be verifiable means to prevent unauthorised use and to stop a system’s further operation wherever it can still be halted.

Safety that exists only on condition that the owner remains forever reasonable is not sufficient safety for force on such a scale.

Principle 299. One person must not have the power to destroy millions

The more lives a single order, launch or failure can destroy, the more dangerous it is to concentrate such force in one system.

The technological ability to instantly multiply a human will must not turn one person’s mistake into a catastrophe for millions.

Principle 300. A machine must not independently decide to kill a human being

Autonomous weapon systems that independently select human beings as targets and apply lethal force to them without a human decision on the specific use of force are prohibited.

Human participation must be meaningful: a sufficient understanding of the circumstances, a real ability to refuse the use of force and responsibility for the decision. Advance permission to attack any target matching a given profile, or formal confirmation without an opportunity to assess the circumstances, does not replace such participation.

Other permissible means of protection must remain subject to predictable limits on their use and effective human control.

Principle 301. Defence must not threaten to destroy the world it protects

People must retain the ability to resist violence and protect human communities.

But a means of defence ceases to fulfil that function when its use or a loss of control could destroy the very world whose safety it is meant to ensure.

Principle 302. A technology’s name does not remove the limit on destructive power

The restriction applies to a technology’s actual capabilities and consequences, regardless of its name, novelty or stated purpose.

Tools from synthetic biology, geoengineering, artificial intelligence and other fields must not be used to create threats to the existence of the species, catastrophic destruction of the biosphere or the uncontrolled spread of destructive effects. The prohibition cannot be circumvented by declaring such a tool a civilian project or research.

PART XVIII THE SHARED LAW OF EARTH

CHAPTER XLVI ON SHARED RIGHTS

Principle 303. The rights of Homo sapiens do not depend on borders

Fundamental human rights do not arise or disappear when a border is crossed.

A person’s location may change the applicable jurisdiction, but not their human dignity.

Principle 304. Shared rights do not require identical social arrangements

Human societies may organise their economies, governance, property, education, culture and other areas of shared life in different ways. Diversity in social systems is permissible as long as it does not destroy the fundamental rights of Homo sapiens or the shared foundation of life on Earth.

A common fundamental basis does not require the creation of identical states, cultures or social orders. The shared boundary exists to protect Homo sapiens, not to destroy human diversity.

Principle 305. A law does not make a violation of rights acceptable

The mere adoption of a rule by a state, a majority or another recognised authority does not turn a violation of a fundamental right into a just action.

Legality and fundamental permissibility are not always the same thing.

Principle 306. A person must understand the rules to which they are subject

A person must not be subject to fundamental rules whose meaning is practically impossible to understand without access to a small circle of specialists.

Some rules are inevitably complex. But complexity must not be used to conceal from a person their duties or the limits on power over them.

Principle 307. A right is useless if it cannot be defended

Recognition of a fundamental right matters only when Homo sapiens have a real opportunity to defend it against violation.

A formal declaration does not replace a right’s ability to take effect.

Principle 308. An exception must not destroy the rule

An emergency may require temporary restrictions on some ordinary ways of exercising a right.

It must not become a universal reason to abolish the fundamental limit on power itself.

Principle 309. A temporary restriction must not become permanent

A measure introduced because of a specific danger must be reconsidered as that danger disappears.

A past necessity does not create a perpetual right to restrict Homo sapiens.

Principle 310. Rules also bind those who enforce them

Those in power must not stand outside the fundamental order they establish for everyone else.

Law ceases to be common to all if the authority wielding it can exempt itself from its limits at will.

PART XIX SPACE

CHAPTER XLVII ON HUMANITY’S LIFE IN SPACE

Principle 311. Space is the shared future of Homo sapiens

The exploration and development of space affect the future of the entire human species.

The precedence of a particular state, organisation or generation must not turn the shared direction of Homo sapiens into an exclusive sphere of their power.

Principle 312. Space does not make Earth expendable

The ability of Homo sapiens to one day live beyond Earth does not diminish the value of the planet on which human civilisation emerged.

Development in space does not justify the destruction of Earth.

Principle 313. Humanity must not carry destruction into space

The movement of Homo sapiens beyond Earth must not carry into new spaces the principle of using a place until it is depleted and then moving on.

An increase in accessible space expands the possibilities for human activity, but does not cancel responsibility for its consequences.

Principle 314. The first explorer does not become the owner of a new world

Being the first to reach a planet, moon, asteroid or another part of space does not mean acquiring an unconditional right to dispose of it without regard for other people and the future.

Technological advantage is not grounds for sovereignty in space.

Principle 315. New resources do not justify endless consumption

Expanding access to matter beyond Earth may increase the capabilities of Homo sapiens.

It does not remove the need to treat resources responsibly or make endless growth in material consumption a sustainable goal.

Principle 316. An unknown world must not be changed before we understand it

People must not assume that what has not yet been sufficiently studied is lifeless, safe or insignificant.

The scale of an intervention must take into account the degree of knowledge about the environment people intend to change.

Principle 317. Extraterrestrial life has value regardless of its benefit to human beings

The discovery of life beyond Earth must not automatically turn it into a resource, an obstacle or experimental material.

The very fact that life has arisen independently creates grounds for a special responsibility of Homo sapiens towards it.

Principle 318. Extraterrestrial intelligence cannot be human property

If Homo sapiens encounter another independent subject, technological, military or intellectual superiority will not create a right of ownership over it.

A different origin does not cancel the need to recognise a subject where one actually exists.

Principle 319. The further human power reaches, the more important its limits become

Development in space increases the scale of the possible consequences of human actions.

Civilisational maturity must grow along with the reach of human power.

Principle 320. The development of new worlds must not turn into their depletion

The ability of Homo sapiens to reach new territories must not turn each new environment into the next temporary source of matter.

A long-term presence requires the ability to preserve the conditions of one’s own existence wherever human beings arrive.

PART XX THE FUTURE

CHAPTER XLVIII ON THE UNFINISHED NATURE OF THE HUMAN WORLD

Principle 321. The present does not have the last word

No generation of Homo sapiens possesses final knowledge of human beings, Earth, consciousness, society or the organisation of the world.

Our decisions may be the best available to us and still prove mistaken to those who will know more.

Principle 322. Preserving a mistake is not respect for our ancestors

Future people are not obliged to continue a system we created merely because we considered it sound.

The value of a legacy is determined not by its age but by whether it continues to serve life and the world.

Principle 323. Development must not deprive future people of the ability to develop

When creating lasting systems, technologies and changes to the environment, people must, wherever possible, avoid depriving future generations of the ability to choose and change the direction of civilisation.

The greatness of today’s decision does not justify making the future its hostage.

Principle 324. Civilisation must be able to correct its own mistakes

People will make mistakes.

A mature civilisation is not one that never makes mistakes. It knows how to notice them, correct them and change course before it is too late.

Principle 325. The future has the right to be wiser than we are

If a future person can create a world wiser than ours, our duty is to leave them that opportunity.