{
  "id": "responsibility.moral",
  "term": "responsibility",
  "sense": "moral",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "ethics",
  "domain": "social",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "a self-model that represents itself as one of the conditions setting other systems' walls. Which is why it can be accepted, and refused.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "model.representation",
      "parameter.condition",
      "wall.range-end",
      "system.organized",
      "condition.state",
      "self.personal",
      "setting.contextual"
    ],
    "interaction": "These components together enable a reflexive self-model to represent its own enduring state as a condition that influences the boundaries of organized systems, within a stable context.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "moral self-attribution",
      "contextual accountability",
      "boundary-setting agency"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The 2003 Northeast Blackout spread because FirstEnergy Corp failed to maintain tree trimming schedules on power lines in Ohio.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Dr. Anthony Fauci, as NIAID director, publicly adjusted pandemic guidance as new viral data emerged, updating his stance on masks and transmission.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Toyota Production System assigns each worker authority to stop the assembly line upon detecting a defect, documented in the 1988 NUMMI plant operations.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "maintenance.upkeep",
      "type": "enables",
      "note": "responsible agents perform maintenance on systems"
    },
    {
      "id": "drift.aimless",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "responsibility opposes drift"
    },
    {
      "id": "feedback.communication",
      "type": "medium-for",
      "note": "responsibility arises via feedback loops in models"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "responsibility"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "retrofit:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "Sample/we-already-had-the-words.md"
    ],
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Removed 'feedback.communication' as it is not referenced in the definition. Added 'condition.state', 'self.personal', and 'setting.contextual' as they are implicitly required for the self-model to per"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-responsibility.moral"
}