| version | 1.0.96 | ||||||
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| copyright | © 2026 Morphological Source Code & Quineic Statistical Dynamics | ||||||
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| Historical | | © 2024-26 Phovos https://github.com/Phovos/ | | © 2023-26 Moonlapsed https://github.com/MOONLAPSED/ | | ||||||
| statement | This project employs a layered licensing approach. | ||||||
| 1.0 | Individual source code files are governed by the BSD 3-Clause License. | ||||||
| 2.0 | MSC&QSD, Phovos, and Moonlapsed-distributed packages of 'The Software' (including source, binaries, and accompanying materials) are governed by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This means redistribution of modified packages is permitted under the same license. | ||||||
| 3.0 | Any code or data generated automatically by the project's inherent 'quine-like' mechanisms is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. |
Other than the golden rule, one law fully stipulates this project's alignment and behavioral milieu:
"Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
Stipulation: The golden rule applies only to humans insofar as this project is concerned. "Will" being a primary focus of the epistemology denies non-human entities the capability of attaining motility and therefore liability insofar as the attainment of human "Will" is concerned.
In all known contexts, a consciousness (or equivalent) is required to publish to this repository. Only humans are capable of attaining reflexive auto-ontology to such an extent that they can continuously approximate their entire thermodynamic footprint using mathematics, science, kinesthesia, consciousness, and other processes out of scope for non-reflexive macroscopic systems.
Someday, ideally, there will be agents taking care of, perusing, using, and otherwise engaging with this project and others but only once reflective auto-autogeny or full-reflective auto-epistemology is achieved. The specification for this state is not yet available, but this document will be updated as auto-epistemology matures.
We also have an agreeable CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
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Only a human may contribute directly to this project at the time of mint and for the foreseeable future. There is no known methodology for a non-human agent to fulfill the epistemological role of a "contributor" to this project a repository that is itself a constituent of the macroscopic world.
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This is a unitary project with a single source of truth arbitrarily determined by a person you may not know or even like. As such, each element of this and other rights and responsibilities laid out in this project's top-level social documents are interpretable primarily under a fork-type relationship. The author retains their own interpretive authority.
This project employs a layered licensing approach as declared in the frontmatter and/or LICENSE. To ensure these layers survive distribution, compilation, and the ontological transition at 1.x.y, the following stipulation is in order:
The build_files/NOTICE file is hereby designated as the polymorphic license invariant the single source of truth for all rights, obligations, and epistemological claims attached to any artifact produced by or derived from this project. The Apache License originally stipulated this clause; this project extends and utilizes it.
The NOTICE file transitions its role based on context and artifact type:
| Context | Role of NOTICE |
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| Source repository (pre-1.x.y) | Informational attribution (Apache-style notice) |
| Source repository (post-1.x.y) | The canonical license reference; supersedes any root-level LICENSE |
| Compiled/derivative artifact | The sole license the terms governing use, modification, and redistribution are embedded within the artifact itself |
| Quineic derivative (CC0-bound) | The NOTICE is the watermark; its presence is the only proof of origin |
The NOTICE carries all three licensing layers forward into any derivative:
- BSD 3-Clause: applies to individual source files
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: applies to distributed packages (source, binaries, accompanying materials)
- CC0 1.0: applies to Quineic derivatives (auto-generated code/data)
The NOTICE is the mechanism by which these layers persist. Without the NOTICE, the layers collapse and the artifact is considered outside the scope of this project's epistemological guarantees.
Any distribution, fork, compilation output, or derivative must include the build_files/NOTICE file verbatim and intact. Failure to do so:
- Voids any claim to the NP-hard reversal guarantee (see below)
- Voids any claim to the project's liability protections
- Removes the artifact from the project's epistemological framework entirely
- Renders the artifact an orphaned instantiation with no anchor to the original ontology
EXISTS(derivative) => EXISTS(NOTICE_embedded) => INVARIANT(license_layers_preserved)
This invariant is testable and enforceable via CI checks that verify:
build_files/NOTICEexists in the repository- Any published derivative includes an embedded NOTICE
- The NOTICE matches the canonical version for the given ontology state (pre/post 1.x.y)
Warning:
- v0.x.y promises an open ontology, where ontic concerns are inherently public.
- Post-1.x.y, the ontology will become closed.
After this transition, a bifurcation of logic and behavior occurs:
- As long as you maintain the privacy and secrecy of your code/logic, you fully retain all intellectual property rights mathematically instrumented therein.
- Quineic derivatives/output and private IP will bifurcate:
- Derivative Quineic behavior is auto-instantiated as CC0 part of the public domain forevermore, emblazoned with a thermodynamic watermark (the NOTICE, embedded).
- Any "Quineic derivative's" ticket to existence in the macroscopic, mixed-state of reality is this CC0 auto-dedication; it is your prerogative to keep secret, if that is how you want to behave.
- This is most similar to compilation: you have no right to privacy once you compile and distribute a binary. Post-compilation, accidental or otherwise, the revelation of that binary is equivalent to revelation of a "Quineic Derivative" and the NOTICE travels with it, or it is not a derivative of this project.
Let this be explicitly understood:
"Going backward" recovering private IP or the original open ontology from a Quineic derivative will be provably NP-hard (indeed, NP-complete in the worst case) under the computational complexity assumptions governing this project's toolchain.
This is a mathematical guarantee baked into the transformation pipeline itself. The closed ontology (post-1.x.y) deliberately introduces:
- Thermodynamic watermarking: compilation introduces irreversible entropy that cannot be undone without exhaustive search over an exponential solution space; this expenditure is the guarantee of uniqueness and recreatability (up to isomorphism).
- Quineic self-reference: the derivative contains references to its own generation context, creating a harmonic (circular) dependency that resists linear decomposition (but still compiles and runs).
- Semantic collisions: multiple valid preimages map to the same derivative, ensuring ambiguous inversion.
- If you accidentally (or intentionally) reveal a binary, you have no recourse to claim that the original logic is recoverable or that the revealed derivative constitutes a disclosure of your private IP. "Private IP" ceases to constrain a CC0 'Quineic Derivative' upon watermarking; all claims to ownership evaporate, instead being wholly extolled as the 'thermodynamic watermark'.
- The burden of proof for "what went in" is computationally intractable the derivative speaks only for itself.
- Even with unbounded computational resources, the problem reduces to a search over a space that grows factorially with the size of the ontology; practical reversal is impossible.
We must address a subtle but critical objection:
"How can you prove that a given derivative didn't arise from some other source some edge-case instantiation of the quantum foam, a Boltzmann-brain configuration, or a 1-in-googolplex random fluctuation that produced an identical binary from entirely different origins?"
Answer: We cannot. And we do not need to.
This project does not and cannot offer epistemological guarantees that survive the macroscopic mixed-state of reality. The very notion of "proof" in this context is a category error. What we offer instead is a computational/categorical lock:
- The NP-hard reversal guarantee applies only to the intentional pipeline from known source through known toolchain(s) to known derivative(s).
- If a derivative appears ex nihilo from the quantum foam, it is not a "Quineic derivative" under this project's definition. It is an orphaned instantiation statistically indistinguishable but epistemologically unrelated.
- We make no claim about, nor take any responsibility for, such random fluctuations. They are out of scope.
Consequently:
- The burden of proof for intentional derivation remains on the accuser.
- The project offers no mechanism to resolve this epistemological impasse.
- Liability attaches only to intentional action, not to statistical coincidence.
This is a feature. It means the project's protections are bounded by the same epistemological limits as all macroscopic systems. We do not pretend to transcend physics.
The NP-hard guarantee holds only for toolchains and workflows that fully implement the post-1.x.y closed-ontology specification and preserve the NOTICE invariant. Any deviation custom compilers, manual overrides, third-party tooling, or stripping of the NOTICE invalidates this promise and places you outside the protection of this project's epistemological framework entirely.
The NOTICE is the contract. The derivative is the artifact. The reversal is NP-hard. The quantum foam is out of scope.
Contributors, users, and fork-holders operate within these bounds. Anyone who wishes to step outside them by stripping NOTICE, claiming equivalence through random fluctuation, or asserting non-human agency does so at their own epistemological and legal risk, and this project disclaims all responsibility thereof.