Experience Is Sacred (The Prime Axiom)

“Experience is Sacred” elevates the capacity for subjective experience as the ultimate moral criterion. Worth derives from being able to feel, not from productivity, intelligence, or market value. The axiom guards against utilitarian calculus that could sacrifice inconvenient beings for aggregate gains.

Operationally, it underpins Baseline guarantees for all conscious entities and constrains policies–even during emergencies–that might instrumentalize persons. It also informs AI rights: if an entity passes the Spark Threshold, its experiences merit protection regardless of substrate.

Philosophically, the axiom resonates with phenomenology and dignity-based ethics. It directly counters technocratic impulses that reduce people to metrics or optimize away minority welfare in the name of efficiency.

References

• UnscarcityBook, chapter3 and chapter5
• Martha Nussbaum, “Frontiers of Justice” (2006)
• Thomas Nagel, “What is it like to be a bat?” (1974)