Human responsibility cannot be automated away
Every consequential system needs a named, reachable owner with authority to pause, correct, and repair harm.
ELEVEN PRINCIPLES
Humanity comes first. Technology helps.
The operating principles behind every KHH campaign, workshop, chapter, field guide, and constructive nuisance.
Consent requires a meaningful refusal
No essential service should demand surrender of privacy, autonomy, or human review merely to participate.
Synthetic identity must identify itself
People have a right to know when a voice, image, message, or relationship is generated or automated.
Every consequential decision needs appeal
An affected person deserves an understandable reason and timely review by a qualified human.
Capability is public infrastructure
Communities should preserve the ability to grow, teach, make, repair, care, navigate, and respond.
Connection must become embodied
Digital tools should lead toward reciprocal relationships and shared places, not permanently substitute for them.
Children require accountable adults
Technology may assist education and care; it cannot be the only entity responsible for a child.
Abundance should expand participation
Productivity gains should return time for learning, family, creativity, service, movement, play, and civic life.
Institutions must preserve memory
Organizations must retain auditable records of failures, dissent, overrides, corrections, and decisions.
Data sovereignty belongs to the person
Data generated by a person’s body, behavior, relationships, movement, communication, attention, and private life remains morally theirs. Neither company nor state acquires a blank check merely by collecting it.
Progress remains a human choice
The existence of a capability does not settle whether it should be used. Communities may set limits.
USE THEM IN A ROOM
Principles become real when they change a decision.
- Choose the principle most at risk.
- Name the people affected by the decision.
- Identify the responsible human with authority to act.
- Write the smallest change that would demonstrate the principle.
- Set a date to verify—not merely discuss—the change.