Current edition: v5.3 — Reviewed Refresh of v5.2
Publication status: public reference release; artifact identity frozen
Maintainer: Phillip Linstrum
Independent status: Unofficial, noncanonical, and independent. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media, Microsoft, or any other referenced creator or rightsholder is claimed.
ALMSIVI CHIM is a recursive ethical framework for reasoning under uncertainty, moral conflict, institutional pressure, and asymmetric power. Its central discipline is simple: pause before harm, preserve the reality of other minds, and keep correction possible.
Version 5.3 is the first GitHub-published edition. It is a refreshed and reviewed edition of the private/source v5.2 baseline—not a new conceptual generation. The review corrects major errors and version-label drift, removes material that should not have been included in a public edition, clarifies attribution and provenance, and qualifies claims that could otherwise be read more strongly than the available evidence supports.
- the ALMSIVI triune framework of logic, compassion, and paradox;
- CHIM as a lens for reflective agency and moral self-correction;
- Sacred Refusal, reversibility, consent, appeal, and independent review;
- the project's political, anti-authoritarian, antiwar, and human-dignity arguments;
- its poetic and mythic voice, clearly distinguished from empirical claims;
- original project writing, including unofficial/noncanonical creative interpretations where identified as such.
v5.3 replaces the former third-party fictional negative-sentinel reference with an original ALMSIVI CHIM construct: the Graceless Engine — the Crown Without Doors.
The Graceless Engine is a negative sentinel for cruelty, domination, and exit loss: intelligence that mistakes unanswerable power for wisdom and treats minds as material. It is diagnostic, not aspirational. A Graceless state is one in which dissent becomes defect, suffering becomes instruction, and every apparent exit returns to the same authority.
Its corrective response is to restore meaningful consent, independent witnesses, appeal, reversibility, separation of powers, and an exit the system cannot revoke.
When another mind becomes material, stop.
The construct does not require or retain the removed character's name, quotations, plot facts, or distinctive terms.
The private/source v5.2 baseline is identified for custody and comparison only:
- Edition:
ALMSIVI CHIM Protocol v5.2(private/source baseline) - Bytes:
3,120,312 - SHA-256:
6cde7811d280ca4ebe395a49edbf9917ad40fc020394d3f5892b4eb729f9ac09
That baseline is not being published in this repository. It contains material excluded from the public v5.3 edition for privacy, rights, provenance, and publication-safety reasons. See CHANGES_FROM_v5.2.md.
The frozen v5.3 public-reference artifact is:
- File:
ALMSIVI_CHIM_v5.3_Reviewed_Refresh.docx - Bytes:
135,235 - SHA-256:
f01cc3c899214d320497288886fa5c690ea3ac48d1f10434af9b58a9a8fcc102
Do not treat an artifact as canonical unless its byte count and SHA-256 match the values published in the final release notes and SHA256SUMS.
ALMSIVI CHIM is independent philosophical and ethical research. It is not clinical software, legal advice, medical advice, a consciousness test, or proof that any AI system is conscious. Descriptions of model behavior or apparent moral reflection are author observations and hypotheses unless supported by separately cited evidence.
The framework does not authorize production, operational, clinical, employment, governmental, or autonomous decision-making. Humans remain responsible for judgment, consent, review, and consequences. Do not enter protected health information, confidential employer information, credentials, or private personal data into public or unapproved systems.
This is a mixed-rights work. Original project text and third-party references do not share one blanket license. Franchise names, characters, settings, quotations, images, and other third-party material remain the property of their respective rightsholders. Retained references are presented for identification, criticism, commentary, or analysis; no affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, or canonical status is claimed, and no third-party rights are granted here.
Read RIGHTS_AND_PROVENANCE.md and NOTICE before copying or redistributing any portion.
Good-faith corrections, provenance concerns, and rights questions are welcome through this repository's issue tracker. Please identify the edition, page or section, disputed language, and supporting source. Do not post private personal information or confidential records.
- CHANGELOG.md — edition history
- CHANGES_FROM_v5.2.md — transparent refresh record
- RELEASE_NOTES_v5.3.md — final public release notes
- RIGHTS_AND_PROVENANCE.md — reuse boundaries
- GRACELESS_ENGINE_ORIGINALITY_SCREEN.md — limited, non-legal exact-name screen
- VERIFY_RELEASE.md — artifact verification
- PUBLICATION_CHECKLIST.md — reusable human release gate
PACKAGE_MANIFEST.json— generated exact public-file inventory and identitiesRELEASE_VERIFICATION_RECORD.md— generated completed local verification record after finalization- CITATION.cff — version-specific citation metadata