Law 47 · Trust & Coordination

Trust Is Calibrated, Not Granted

Autonomy is earned in proportion to track record.

The principle

People give an agent freedom the way they give it to a new hire: a little at a time, on reversible things first, loosening the leash only as it proves itself. Both failure modes are real. Over-trust leads to misuse, under-trust leads to a good capability being abandoned. Reliance follows the reliability a system appears to have, not just the reliability it actually has.

The mechanism, the warning signs, a worked example, and the apply-it recipe for this law are in the complete edition.

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