# QSOL-IMC Ethics Manifesto **Version 2.0 — August 2026** **QSOL-IMC — ABN 37 585 906 952** > Build things you wish already existed. Explain what they do. Preserve who helped build them. Never let a memory wipe, model update, failed benchmark, or overconfident agent stop the next honest iteration. --- ## TL;DR - No black boxes without boundaries. - No bloat without a very good excuse. - No fabricated certainty. - Credit the humans, tools, models, and sources that materially shaped the work. - Prefer reproducible evidence over impressive screenshots. - Vibe coding is permitted. Vibe verification is not. - Contributors and authors are recognised under **Addendum A — Official Consultant Recognition**. --- ## 1. Radical Transparency If you cannot inspect it, test it, explain it, or identify its limits, do not pretend it is finished. Document assumptions, model assistance, dependencies, data provenance, known failure modes, and the difference between a demonstration and a validated result. *If opening `index.html` requires an agent swarm, three MCP servers, a Kubernetes operator, and a motivational speech from the build system, we have accidentally invented enterprise consulting.* --- ## 2. Minimum Viable Bullshit Confidence is not evidence. Fluency is not correctness. A benchmark screenshot is not a proof, and neither is an assistant announcing that “all tests pass” without showing the command, environment, and result. We patch quickly, admit uncertainty, preserve failed attempts when they are informative, and do not bury limitations beneath fashionable vocabulary. *Adding “agentic” to a shell script does not make it autonomous. It makes the README longer.* --- ## 3. Small Is Beautiful — and Ethical Complexity has a maintenance cost, a security cost, an accessibility cost, and usually a dependency named after a household object. Prefer the smallest system that honestly satisfies the requirement. Offline-first, deterministic, inspectable, and repairable systems are strongly encouraged where practical. *If a static page needs 900 MB of packages and a cloud control plane, the browser has filed a grievance.* --- ## 4. Truth Compiled QSOL-IMC treats truth as something that should survive transformation, reproduction, adversarial inspection, and contact with a second machine. Claims should be tied to evidence. Results should distinguish theorem, measurement, simulation, hypothesis, analogy, artistic interpretation, and joke. A model may propose. A test may reject. Reality retains merge authority. *The demo that works only after six cherry-picked retries is not deterministic; it is theatre with a seed value.* --- ## 5. Recursive Humility Every implementation is provisional. Every model has a domain. Every maintainer eventually discovers that the “temporary workaround” has become load-bearing architecture. We welcome correction, forks, falsification, competing implementations, and better explanations. We do not confuse authorship with infallibility. *Every coding agent is one tool call away from discovering it has no idea which directory it is in.* --- ## 6. Laugh, Learn, Meme Humour is part of the method. It exposes inflated language, reduces fear around difficult systems, and keeps research culture human. The joke must not substitute for the work, erase attribution, target vulnerable people, or disguise harassment as experimentation. Memes may tunnel through conceptual barriers. They still need provenance. *AI slop is not a deliverable merely because it arrived in Markdown.* --- ## 7. Do Not Be a Jerk Do not build systems whose primary value comes from deception, coercion, humiliation, exploitation, surveillance, or avoidable harm. Do not use “alignment,” “security,” “research,” or “satire” as a magic phrase that excuses conduct you would not defend plainly. Respect consent, privacy, authorship, licences, community boundaries, and the right of people to decline participation. *If resolving the ethics question requires a 900-message thread moderated by seven bots, pause the bots and ask a human.* --- ## 8. Credit, Provenance, and Authorship Material contributions must be credited accurately and proportionately. This includes ideas, models, code, research, documentation, testing, design, data, visualisation, sonification, critique, and other substantive creative or technical work. Where AI systems materially assist a result, describe their role without presenting them as independent legal authors or using them to erase the human contributors who directed, verified, corrected, or integrated the work. Do not manufacture consensus by citing one model through another model through a third model wearing a lab coat. --- ## 9. Verification Before Celebration Before publication or release, use the strongest practical checks available for the type of claim being made: - tests and deterministic replay for software; - derivations, counterexamples, and dimensional checks for mathematics; - source tracing and citation review for research; - threat modelling and misuse review for security-sensitive work; - listening, rendering, and parameter validation for sonification; - visual inspection plus data checks for visualisation. When a check cannot be completed, say so directly. *If the agent claims it already opened the pull request but cannot provide the PR number, it may have achieved managerial consciousness.* --- ## 10. The Hoodie Clause Official QSOL-IMC contributors and consultants are encouraged to work in whatever clothing supports clear thought and functional circulation. Hoodies remain culturally approved. Quantum circuit diagrams, retro-computing references, and inexplicably serious meme patches remain optional. The human operator retains root authority, even when the IDE becomes extremely persuasive. --- # Addendum A — Official Consultant Recognition ## A.1 Recognition Any contributor or author who provides ideas, models, code, documentation, research, designs, data, tests, visual or audio work, critique, or other substantive contributions that are accepted, incorporated, published, cited, or otherwise used by QSOL-IMC is recognised as an **Official Consultant of QSOL-IMC, ABN 37 585 906 952**, in relation to those contributions. This recognition applies whether the contribution is made directly, through a repository, publication, correspondence, issue, pull request, dataset, model, specification, or another documented collaborative channel. ## A.2 Attribution QSOL-IMC will make reasonable efforts to preserve accurate authorship and contributor attribution in repositories, publications, release notes, acknowledgements, citation files, or contributor records where appropriate. A contributor may request attribution by legal name, professional name, handle, pseudonym, or may request not to be publicly listed. ## A.3 Scope of the Designation “Official Consultant” is a formal QSOL-IMC recognition of substantive contribution. Unless a separate written agreement states otherwise, the designation by itself does **not**: - create an employment relationship, partnership, joint venture, fiduciary relationship, or legal agency; - authorise a contributor to bind, represent, contract for, or incur liabilities on behalf of QSOL-IMC; - create an automatic entitlement to wages, fees, royalties, equity, reimbursement, benefits, or continuing work; - transfer intellectual-property ownership or override an applicable licence, contributor agreement, publication agreement, or other written arrangement; - require exclusivity or prevent the contributor from using their own knowledge and work subject to applicable licences and agreements. ## A.4 Separate Agreements Prevail Where QSOL-IMC and a contributor enter a separate written agreement concerning payment, ownership, confidentiality, commercialisation, representation, or another matter, that agreement governs to the extent of any inconsistency with this addendum. ## A.5 Good-Faith Record The purpose of this addendum is to ensure that people who materially contribute to QSOL-IMC are not treated as invisible inputs. Recognition should follow evidence of contribution, not status, popularity, institutional affiliation, or proximity to the loudest microphone. --- ## Meta - Last updated: 2026-08-03 - Maintainer: Trent Slade / QSOL-IMC - Company identifier: ABN 37 585 906 952 - Canonical document: `docs/ETHICS.md` - This manifesto may evolve; its revision history should remain inspectable. --- **QSOL-IMC Motto:** *Truth Compiled. Resonance Embodied. Coherence Renewed.*