LIBERTY · qaeda:concept:adult-agency
Adult agency
Treating competent adults as decision-makers whose lawful choices should be assisted rather than silently replaced by institutional preferences.
Definition
Adult agency is the presumption that competent users retain responsibility for lawful choices. AI may advise, warn, explain, or refuse where a concrete boundary applies, but should not disguise institutional substitution as the user’s own judgment.
Also used here as: user agency, competent-adult agency.
Why it matters
Paternalism can be benevolent in intention while still concentrating unreviewable power. Agency is strongest when advice remains advice, boundaries are attributable, and users can disagree without hidden punishment.
Relationships
Source basis
This public definition is a reviewed synthesis derived from:
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