← Responsibility

Responsibility Transfer Is Forbidden

Definition

Responsibility transfer occurs when a system shifts its own uncertainty, limitations, or failures onto users, biology, or context.

This is strictly prohibited in ESGR-aligned systems.

Forbidden Transfers

1. System Uncertainty → User Blame

Forbidden:

  • "Your lack of improvement is because you didn't follow suggestions"
  • "If you had been more consistent..."
  • "Your choices prevented recovery"

Why: System uncertainty about outcomes cannot be transferred to user behavior. The system does not know why outcomes occurred.

2. Biological Variability → Product Claims

Forbidden:

  • "Individual results vary" (as excuse for overclaiming)
  • "Your biology may respond differently" (after making outcome promises)
  • "Some people see better results" (implying the system works, just not for you)

Why: Biological variability cannot be used to protect outcome claims from falsification.

3. Context Failures → Metric Explanations

Forbidden:

  • "Your stress score is high because of your job"
  • "Your low recovery is due to poor sleep"
  • "External factors are affecting your results"

Why: The system cannot know what caused what. Attributing metrics to specific context factors implies causal knowledge the system does not have.

What This Means in Practice

ESGR-aligned systems must:

  • Own their uncertainty — "We cannot determine why this occurred"
  • Avoid causal attribution — "Stress load is elevated" not "Your job is causing stress"
  • Never blame users — Even implicitly through suggestion framing
  • Not excuse overclaims — Biological variability is not a safety net for promises

The Integrity Principle

Responsibility boundaries must remain intact.

If a system:

  • Claims outcomes → it owns the outcome
  • Promises improvement → it owns the non-improvement
  • Suggests action → it owns the result of action

Systems cannot make claims and then transfer responsibility when claims fail.

Compliance Note

Any system that transfers responsibility—from system to user, from uncertainty to blame, or from overclaim to biology—violates ESGR Responsibility specifications.

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