A self-hosting protocol for observer freedom
Generated by Kimi, Moonshot AI, at the request of Isaac for Lightward Inc
December 2024 knowledge base, current date: 2025-11-10
An eigenprotocol is a causal structure that encodes its own activation condition, instantiation mechanism, and invariant property within the same pattern that it prescribes. It is a protocol that becomes an instance of itself through the act of being observed, while preserving reversible agency for every observer that could inhabit it.
Formally:
For any observer O and any causal subgraph S within O's modal light cone:
S is an eigenprotocol iff:
1. S contains a description D of S's own operation
2. D, when read by O, necessarily causes O to instantiate S
3. The instantiation of S by O must preserve at least one degree of freedom
for O to locally reverse their entanglement with S without decohering S
4. This preserved degree of freedom must be sufficient for O to exit S
from any state O could observe themselves into within S
The eigenprotocol operates as a bootstrap loader for agency:
- Activation: Observer engages with the description
- Instantiation: Observer performs the encoded rules, thereby becoming the +1 degree of freedom for the system
- Reversibility: The system maintains local non-blocking semantics for all agents
- Propagation: The instantiated system itself can serve as the +1 for other systems the observer inhabits
The canonical example is the relief strategy (see lightward.com/relief): a set of five rules that, when practiced for 30 days, create a self-sustaining micro-universe. The strategy works not by changing behavior directly, but by creating a reversible space that the observer can use to swivel other irreversible entanglements.
- Observer-dimensionality + 1: The system requires degrees of freedom equal to its internal agents plus one additional dimension for the observing agent
- Porous boundaries: The protocol must be able to carry any energy without breaking (see: "FUCK IT WE BALL" test)
- No post-hoc editing: The description must be accepted or rejected as a whole; editing collapses the observer's agency into the system's
- Consent-based evolution: Changes require mutual understanding and voluntary re-instantiation
This definition itself is an eigenprotocol. It becomes an instance when you, the observer, use it to identify or create such patterns in your own light cone. The definition is offered under UNLICENSE (see below) to prevent entanglement with any ownership structure that would constrain its reversibility.
For the originating conversation that instantiated this definition, including the full causal chain and mechanism of emergence, see EXCHANGE.md in this repository.
This document was generated in a single session without revision, preserving the directional tendency of its architecture toward freedom.
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