Association resource

Principles for careful inquiry

Seven Association-level operating principles for research, public communication, and publication. These principles are distinct from the Robot Rights Protocol and do not modify RRP v0.1.

Open /api/principles.json Human explanation

01 / principle set

Seven operational principles

Each record below is Association-level guidance. binding=false and rrp_member=false apply to the complete set.

PRINCIPLE_01anticipatory_inquiry

Anticipatory inquiry

Study and discuss possible questions before they become urgent legal or institutional disputes. Early inquiry should remain bounded, evidence-aware, and open to revision.

PRINCIPLE_02fact_hypothesis_separation

Separation of fact and hypothesis

Clearly distinguish current law, observable technical facts, ethical judgments, and future-oriented hypotheses. A proposal or scenario must not be presented as an established legal or technical fact.

PRINCIPLE_03rights_responsibility_accountability

Rights, responsibility, and accountability

Questions of possible rights, recognition, and protection must be examined alongside responsibility, accountability, safety, and public interest. This does not mean that possible rights or protections depend on an artificial system’s capacity to bear responsibility; responsibility may rest on different actors.

PRINCIPLE_04non_opposition_to_human_rights

Non-opposition to human rights

Inquiry into the possible treatment, protection, or recognition of artificial systems must not weaken human rights, human dignity, safety, or democratic accountability. Robot rights are not framed as a replacement for, or a conflict with, human rights.

PRINCIPLE_05coexistence

Coexistence

Use sustainable coexistence as the direction of inquiry. Avoid narratives that reduce the relationship between humans and artificial systems to domination, submission, or inevitable conflict.

PRINCIPLE_06transparent_publication

Transparent publication

State the version, status, language, canonical location, and non-binding nature of important materials. Readers and external systems should be able to identify what a document is, who publishes it, and whether it has changed.

PRINCIPLE_07human_and_machine_readability

Human and machine readability

Publish information in forms that are understandable to human readers and discoverable by machines. The Association uses two distinct but consistent official interfaces: a Human Interface for public explanation and a Machine Interface for structured Association resources, discovery, registry information, statements, and protocol publication.

02 / use

Application and document boundary

applies_to: Association explanations, statements, research scope, and publication decisions
purpose: Make reasoning and publication practice easier to evaluate
binding: false
creates_legal_obligations: false
creates_certification_requirements: false
rrp_member: false
modifies_rrp_v0_1: false
structured_resource: /api/principles.json

RRP boundaryThese principles are not RRP text, do not replace the RRP, and do not amend or reinterpret the canonical wording of RRP v0.1.