Layer 2 Sub-Leviathan of the Leviathan Protocol. Governs animal welfare ethics — sentience recognition, suffering minimization, evidence-based protection, continuous improvement.
This repository contains the constitution of the Animal Welfare Sub-Leviathan. It does not contain implementation code; it defines what implementations must satisfy.
A constitutional framework for animal welfare ethics in the Leviathan federation. The foundational moves:
- Sentience defines moral patiency — capacity to suffer is the criterion, not intelligence or utility (Bentham/Singer/sentientism heritage)
- Precautionary default — uncertainty about sentience triggers protection, not extraction
- Biological evidence over tradition/economics — culture and industry profit cannot override what science shows about animal experience
- Continuous improvement, not maintenance — standards tighten over time, never loosen
| Implementation | Type | Repository | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tasma | Smart collar IoT + open-source pet welfare data | Private / under formation | Classical product company; founder pairing with future anayasal entity |
| Animal Welfare Constitutional Company | Anayasal entity (no-VC, fork-open) built on Tasma data substrate | TBD | Pre-genesis |
| AI agents (Phase 4 demo) | Validators specialized in animal welfare alignment-check | TBD | Demonstrative deployment |
Future implementations may include: research-data products, welfare-audit services, livestock standards consultancies, sanctuary management tools, etc. — all binding to this Sub-Leviathan if they accept its constitution.
This constitution is inspired by the dahao-org animal welfare framework (dahao-animal-welfare-test-1), authored over 8 months of iteration including 60+ simulation runs proving dialectic + alignment patterns work. Content is inspired-by, not copied-from — re-authored fresh in the Leviathan-native format with refined mutability tiers, editorial separation, and on-chain Registry targeting.
The dahao repo remains the historical reference. Lessons learned there (auto-rejection works, personalization on glitch-economy was real, animal-welfare forks drifted toward canonical via accumulated enactment) inform this constitution's design — without inheriting its workflow artifacts.
Element type at folder level. Mutability tier (IMMUTABLE / LOCKED / MUTABLE) in YAML frontmatter of each file.
constitution/
├── terms/ # @TERM — definitional vocabulary
│ ├── sentience.md (MUTABLE) evidence framework, confidence levels
│ └── suffering.md (MUTABLE) prolonged negative affective state
├── principles/ # #PRINCIPLE — guiding values
│ ├── precautionary-principle.md (IMMUTABLE) uncertainty → protection
│ ├── sentience-axiom.md (IMMUTABLE) capacity to suffer = moral patiency
│ ├── biological-primacy.md (LOCKED) evidence > tradition/economics
│ └── five-freedoms.md (LOCKED) floor, extendable, never reducible
└── rules/ # !RULE — operational
├── proportionality.md (MUTABLE) trade-off framework
└── continuous-improvement.md (MUTABLE) direction of refinement
Each element is Markdown + YAML frontmatter. Constitutional content sits above an <hr> separator; editorial context (reasoning, examples, implementation notes) below.
See element-format.md in the public coordination repo for the full spec.
- Draft: Edit
.mdfile in this repo (any contributor, via PR) - Discussion: PR opens forum thread on
leviathan.life/forum/animal-welfare - Vote: Community vote per mutability level
- Validator alignment check: specialized animal-welfare validators check against locked principles (precautionary, sentience axiom)
- Ratification: if approved + aligned, on-chain
ConstitutionalRegistry.ratifyNewVersion(...)records the change
Power users may fork this repo (e.g., alice/animal-welfare) to personalize. Examples of legitimate personalizations:
- Higher evidence threshold for protection (more cautious vs. more permissive)
- Different weighting of behavioral vs. neurological sentience indicators
- Custom welfare standards for specific species the user works with
Canonical Animal Welfare governance happens via this repo; personal forks influence individual reasoning and voting weight.
Inherits from Federation Kernel in leviathan-protocol/meta. Kernel invariants (4-layer structure, hash anchoring, fork freedom, falsifiability) apply implicitly.
CC BY-SA 4.0. Fork freedom is built into the protocol — see principles/ (IMMUTABLE-tier elements).
leviathan-protocol/meta— Federation Leviathanleviathan-protocol/companion— Personal governance Sub-Leviathan (sibling)leviathan-protocol/meta— Cross-repo coordination, ADRs, plansleviathan.life— Public website + forum- Historical reference: dahao-org animal-welfare framework (private, founder backup)