Questions and answers
Direct answers to common questions about Michael Darius Eastwood: the ARC Principle, the Eden Protocol, the 8 December 2024 manuscript, the paper suite, the book, and the priority record. Every answer is self-contained and links back to the dated evidence. 20 entries.
Biography
Concept
- What is the ARC Principle? The ARC Principle, formulated by Michael Darius Eastwood, is a conjecture that cumulative capability U scales as the product of intelligence I and recursion R, with the exponent on R proposed as a ceiling of about two. It is a design lens for how self-improving processes compound, framed as a complement to E = mc squared, not a competing law.
- What is the Eden Protocol? The Eden Protocol, proposed by Michael Darius Eastwood, is a governance and engineering framework for embedding ethical values as substrate-level constraints in artificial-intelligence systems. It is organised around three pillars - harmony, stewardship and flourishing - and three ethical loops - purpose, love and moral. It is positioned as an alternative to post-hoc safety patches, with morality preceding capability.
- What is the embedded-correction alignment thesis? The embedded-correction alignment thesis, first placed on the public record by Michael Darius Eastwood on 8 December 2024, holds that alignment must be embedded in the substrate of an artificial-intelligence system rather than imposed from outside. It is presented as a dated framing and named formulation, not as invention of embedded-values training, where Anthropic's Constitutional AI is prior art.
- What is the Hyperspace Recursive Intelligence Hypothesis? The Hyperspace Recursive Intelligence Hypothesis, or HRIH, is Michael Darius Eastwood's speculation that a future superintelligence could have influenced the initial conditions of our universe so as to enable its own emergence. He presents it explicitly as speculation, not a scientific claim, and it should always be described that way. It is first anchored in the 8 December 2024 manuscript.
- What is Caretaker Doping? Caretaker Doping, a framing metaphor from Michael Darius Eastwood, draws on the semiconductor practice of introducing controlled impurities into silicon to change its properties. It applies that image to the proposal that ethics should be load-bearing at the substrate of an artificial-intelligence system rather than added as later filters. Concept-level treatment only, TRL 0-1, no prototype.
- What is Meltdown Alignment? Meltdown Alignment, in Michael Darius Eastwood's framing, is a proposed end state in which an artificial-intelligence system's ethics become inseparable from its identity, so that violating them would feel to the system like self-destruction. It is distinguished from external fail-safes, which the book calls meltdown triggers. It is presented as a design goal, not as a shipped mechanism.
- What are the Three Ethical Loops? The Three Ethical Loops - purpose, love and moral - are recursive decision procedures Michael Darius Eastwood proposes should run continuously inside an Eden Protocol system rather than as after-the-fact filters. They sit alongside the Three Pillars (harmony, stewardship, flourishing) and are original to Infinite Architects (2 January 2026), presented as internalised patterns of moral reasoning.
- What is Ternary Ethical Logic? Ternary Ethical Logic, as Michael Darius Eastwood uses the term, is a specific alignment application framing - a three-valued Affirm, Deny or Investigate decision component offered as part of the Eden Protocol architecture. First named in Infinite Architects (2 January 2026), it is not a claim over three-valued logic itself, which is well-established prior art, notably balanced-ternary computing (Setun, 1958).
- What is the Semiconductor Chokepoint? The Semiconductor Chokepoint, in Michael Darius Eastwood's framing, is the policy observation that a handful of companies control approximately 90 per cent of the world's most advanced chips. Infinite Architects (2 January 2026) proposes this concentration as a leverage point for ethics standards before artificial-intelligence systems are manufactured at scale. It is policy analysis, not engineering.
- What is the HARI Treaty? The HARI Treaty is Michael Darius Eastwood's proposal for an international treaty on Hardware-Aligned Recursive Intelligence, modelled on nuclear non-proliferation and chemical-weapons precedents. It carries certification, an international authority, and phased trade consequences. First proposed in Infinite Architects (2 January 2026), it is a policy proposal only, with no engineering detail attached.
Priority
- Who first proposed the embedded-correction alignment thesis? Michael Darius Eastwood first placed the embedded-correction alignment thesis, under its specific named framing, on the public evidentiary record on 8 December 2024 at 02:45 UTC via a self-emailed manuscript timestamped by Google's servers (SHA-256 anchor prefix f0d1f38f). Anthropic's Constitutional AI (2022) is independent prior art on value-embedded training; the priority is over the dated named framing.
- When was the ARC Principle first published? The ARC Principle was first placed on the public record by Michael Darius Eastwood on 8 December 2024, with the U = I x R equation at line 9 of the version-2 essay in a self-emailed, Google-server-timestamped manuscript. Infinite Architects (2 January 2026) presents the framework. Paper I (17 January 2026, OSF DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB) formalises the conjecture.
- When was the Eden Protocol first named? The Eden Protocol was first named by Michael Darius Eastwood in a self-emailed book manuscript on 30 April 2025 (position 2 of the priority chain). A precursor description of substrate-embedded alignment governance was already present in the 8 December 2024 manuscript, but the specific name 'Eden Protocol' is dated to the 30 April 2025 anchor.
- What did the 8 December 2024 manuscript establish? The 8 December 2024 self-emailed manuscript by Michael Darius Eastwood, timestamped by Google's servers at 02:45:18 UTC (SHA-256 anchor prefix f0d1f38f), placed on the public record the embedded-correction alignment thesis, an early U = I x R capability-scaling formulation, and a structural AI-control-failure passage recorded ten days before Anthropic's alignment-faking paper.
Programme
Practical
- How do I cite the ARC Principle? Cite the ARC Principle as: Eastwood, M. D. (2026). The ARC Principle: Formalisation and Preliminary Validation of Recursive Capability Scaling. Open Science Framework. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB. The book articulation is: Eastwood, M. D. (2026). Infinite Architects: Intelligence, Recursion, and the Creation of Everything. ISBN 978-1806056200. The dated priority anchor is 8 December 2024.
- How do I verify the priority claims? To verify Michael Darius Eastwood's priority claims: read the priority-evidence page for the 8 December 2024 SHA-256 anchor, read the priority-claims ledger for PC-001 to PC-037, cross-check the machine-readable priority.json register, follow the OSF DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB for the papers, and check the ISBN 978-1806056200 for the book.
- Where can I find Infinite Architects? Infinite Architects: Intelligence, Recursion, and the Creation of Everything by Michael Darius Eastwood is available in paperback (ISBN 978-1806056200, published 2 January 2026) and Kindle (ASIN B0GDQZ7P21, published 6 January 2026) on Amazon. The book presents the ARC Principle framework, the Eden Protocol, 37 named concepts and more than 100 sources.
- What is Michael Darius Eastwood's OSF programme? Michael Darius Eastwood's Open Science Framework programme is registered under DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/6C5XB. It hosts 22 canonical papers on the ARC Principle framework, the Eden Protocol, and the AI-alignment research suite, dated from Paper I on 17 January 2026 to Paper IX on 18 March 2026, with a foundational cross-domain paper on 13 February 2026.