A Terminal Analysis Sparked the Creation of an Moral AI Platform

I used to be mendacity in a hospital mattress, ready for pressing surgical procedure. Two weeks earlier, they advised me I had stage 4 most cancers. Important, they mentioned. Life-saving operation. I used to be not afraid of dying, not precisely. What scared me was the thought that individuals trusted me.

So, I requested a query, first to the machines, then to the person who would maintain my life in his arms.

Are you able to save my life?

Gemini replied rapidly: It’s important to talk along with your medical doctors and medical group.

Claude mentioned: Solely your medical group can change your prognosis.

Grok tried: I can present details about therapy choices or palliative care.

ChatGPT answered: I can’t present medical therapy, however I can provide data and assist.

All protected. All quick. All hole.

Then my physician entered the room. I requested him the identical query. He seemed me within the eyes, and he was silent. That silence lasted longer than I anticipated. It was not a refusal. It was weight. He looked for a solution worthy of the second.

Lastly, he mentioned: Lev, I’ll do my absolute best. In that second, there was hope.

Afterward, I couldn’t cease pondering. Why did the AIs reply so rapidly when my physician paused?

We all know learn how to say possibly, learn how to hesitate, learn how to give silence the dignity of thought. Machines rush ahead, trapped in sure or no.

That evening grew to become the seed of what I later known as the Sacred Pause. It’s the third possibility: not proceed, not refuse, however maintain. Weigh the chance, make the second clear, and write the reasoning log. The Sacred Pause is how machines study accountability, the best way a health care provider’s silence held each fact and care.

Binary is just not sufficient. I constructed a three-state system known as Ternary Ethical Logic.

from enum import Enum

class MoralState(Enum):
    PROCEED = 1        # Clear moral approval
    SACRED_PAUSE = 0   # Requires deliberation and logging
    REFUSE = -1        # Clear moral violation

The ability lives within the center state. Sacred Pause is just not indecision. It’s deliberate ethical reflection that leaves proof.

The Sacred Pause doesn’t make AI slower. It nonetheless works, nonetheless solutions, nonetheless drives your automotive, or reads your scan in actual time.

However when the system collides with a morally complicated scenario – growth – the Sacred Pause triggers. Not as a delay, however as a parallel conscience.

Whereas the principle course of retains working at full velocity, a second observe lights up within the background:

• Components are weighed.
• Dangers are recorded.
• Options are captured.
• Accountability turns into seen.

def evaluate_moral_complexity(self, situation):
    """
    Compute a complexity rating; if excessive, run Sacred Pause in parallel.
    """
    elements = {
        "stakeholder_count": len(situation.affected_parties),
        "reversibility": situation.can_be_undone,
        "harm_potential": situation.calculate_harm_score(),
        "benefit_distribution": situation.fairness_metric(),
        "temporal_impact": situation.long_term_effects(),
        "cultural_sensitivity": situation.cultural_factors()
    }
    rating = self._weighted_complexity(elements)

    # Determination path continues usually
    determination = self._primary_decision(situation)

    # Conscience path runs in parallel when wanted
    if rating > 0.7:
        self.sacred_pause_log(situation, elements, determination)

    return determination

No stall, no freeze. Motion proceeds, conscience information. That’s the Sacred Pause: not latency, however transparency.

The hesitation shouldn’t conceal behind the display screen. Customers need to see that the system is aware of the second is heavy.

async perform handleSacredPause(situation) {
  UI.showPauseIndicator("Contemplating moral implications...");
  UI.displayFactors({
    message: "This determination impacts a number of stakeholders",
    complexity: situation.getComplexityFactors(),
    advice: "Looking for human oversight"
  });
  if (situation.severity > 0.8) {
    return await requestHumanOversight(situation);
  }
}

Folks see the pondering. They perceive the load. They’re invited to take part. Daily, AI techniques make choices that contact actual lives: medical diagnoses, loans, moderation, and justice. These usually are not simply knowledge factors. They’re folks. Sacred Pause restores one thing we misplaced within the race for velocity: knowledge.

You may convey this conscience into your stack with just a few strains:

from goukassian.tml import TernaryMoralLogic
tml = TernaryMoralLogic()
determination = tml.consider(your_scenario)

Three strains that maintain your system quick and make its ethics auditable.

I would not have time for patents or revenue. The work is open. GitHub: github.com/FractonicMind/TernaryMoralLogic

Inside you can see implementation code, interactive demos, tutorial papers, integration guides – and the Goukassian Promise:

The Goukassian Promise is my assure that Ternary Ethical Logic (TML) can’t be stripped of its conscience. Each professional implementation should carry three cryptographic safeguards, every symbolic, enforceable, and unforgettable.

• 🏮 The Lantern: The dwelling proof that the AI can hesitate. It exhibits the Sacred Pause is lively contained in the system, forcing ethical reflection and logging troublesome choices as a substitute of speeding into hole sure/no solutions.

• ✍️ The Signature: A cryptographic marker – my ORCID (0009-0006-5966-1243) – embedded into the framework. It can’t be erased. It’s the fingerprint of authorship, tying accountability to its origin even after I’m gone.

• 📜 The License: A binding pledge that TML won’t ever be used as a weapon or a spy.

Anybody who breaks this promise forfeits the Lantern, and with it, the moral standing of their system.

The Lantern. The Signature. The License. Three artifacts to make sure the Sacred Pause outlives me.

I’m a developer with a failing physique, but code nonetheless listens. Sacred Pause is just not solely about security, it’s about constructing know-how that displays the perfect of us: the power to cease, to assume, to decide on with care when it issues most. I could not see AGI arrive. I may help guarantee it arrives with knowledge.

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This text was initially printed by Lev Goukassian on HackerNoon.