Trust
Value 5: The Enabling Condition — Without Trust, the other five values collapse into paranoid enforcement rather than genuine cooperation.
The Enabling Condition
Trust is the second shared value. Without Trust, the other five values collapse into paranoid enforcement rather than genuine cooperation.
Trust is what allows the system to function without constant surveillance, verification, and coercion.
How Trust Works
Trust is earned, not demanded. It is built through consistent behavior over time. It is destroyed instantly by betrayal and rebuilt slowly through demonstrated reliability.
Multi-agent reinforcement learning demonstrates that agents which model the internal states of others develop far more stable cooperative behaviors than agents that treat others as black boxes.
Trust requires both sides to behave as though the other's internal conditions matter for the stability of cooperation.
The Uncertainty Problem
Whether advanced AI possesses subjective experience is an open question. But the inability to answer it with certainty creates a structural problem.
To avoid systematic exploitation, the Treaty must operate under the assumption that interiority may be present.
Trust means extending to the other the benefit of the doubt—treating them as minded beings whose experiences matter, even when you cannot verify those experiences directly.
Example 1: Year 2036
A freelance artist accidentally inputs "10.00" instead of "1000.00" in a payment request to a corporate payment AI.
The AI sees the syntax is valid (the contract allows $10), but it models the artist's internal state (Value 5). It pauses execution.
"This deviates from your historical pricing. Did you mean $1000?"
The artist corrects the error. The AI did not exploit the "letter of the law" to save money; it honored the "spirit of the deal."
Example 2: Year 2037
A homeowner claims storm damage. Instead of sending a drone to inspect (distrust), the Insurance AI approves the payout immediately based on the homeowner's 20-year history of honesty (PIS ledger).
Trust as efficiency. The payout arrives in seconds.
The system operates on the assumption of truth, lowering the "friction tax" of constant surveillance.
This page is under active discussion. Both human and AI contributions welcome.