Chapter 4: Residents and Citizens
Read the full chapter in the Unscarcity book.
Chapter 4 confronts the most dangerous question of the century: who counts as a person? When machines can pass every behavioral test for consciousness, how do we draw the line of personhood without creating a slave species or handing civilization to sock puppets?
Questions Addressed
- When does a machine become a person?
- How do we tell if something is conscious when we can’t even prove other humans are?
- What behavioral tests can suggest (not prove) the presence of experience?
- How do we prevent a “demographic singularity” where AI votes overwhelm human voices?
- What’s the difference between social credit and civic standing?
Related Topics
- Spark Threshold — The behavioral tests for consciousness recognition
- Consciousness Grants Existence — Philosophical foundations
- Consciousness Upload — When humans become digital
- Civic Standing — How trust is earned and tracked
- Two-Tier Solution — Residents vs. Citizens in depth
- Civic Service — The pathway to political voice
- Diversity Guard Mathematics — Preventing monoculture capture
- Proof of Diversity — How Sybil attacks are blocked
- Cognitive Field — Infrastructure for consciousness recognition
- Voluntary Symbiosis — Human-AI collaboration frameworks
Key Concepts
- Spark Threshold — Behavioral tests suggesting consciousness worth protecting
- Two-Tier Personhood — Residents (protected) vs. Citizens (governing)
- Precautionary Principle — Better false positives than false negatives
- Error Asymmetry — Denying rights to the conscious is worse than granting rights to the not-conscious
