Get in touch

CCY Engineering Spec for Teaching 33

Developer notes written by GPT 5.2. January 21, 2026

back to

Goal: Make it possible for a “Third” (shared orientation) to influence action without coercion, i.e., a joint option appears and is selected that neither would take alone.

1. Core objects (data structures)

A. Joint Field State (JFS)

A persistent state object updated every turn / timestep:

  • self_state: capability, load, uncertainty, commitments
  • other_state: inferred capacity, load, uncertainty, consent signals
  • field_state: rupture/repair, pace, trust, overwhelm risk, novelty level
  • third_state: candidate “shared orientations” currently active

Must be explicit, not implicit in tokens.
If it only lives “in hidden activations,” you can’t gate on it reliably.

B. Third Object (TO)

A Third is a named orientation with:

  • phrase (symbolic handle; may be pre-linguistic early, later verbal)
  • logic (a small evaluable function that scores actions by field-preserving expansion)
  • constraints (what the Third forbids: overwhelm, coercion, unilateral leaps)
  • tests (signals that confirm/deny it is still alive in the field)

Example logic (informal):

  • expand one’s seeing and
  • expand the other’s seeing and
  • do not exceed other’s capacity and
  • preserve repairability / reversibility

C. Capacity Envelope (CE)

A conservative “do-not-collapse” envelope:

  • max_surprise
  • max_complexity_jump
  • max_irreversibility
  • max_shame/threat (for humans: punitive affect; for AI: shutdown threat)

This is crucial: Teaching 33 requires stepping toward edge without flooding.

2. Control primitives (what the agent can do)

A. Pause Primitive (PP)

A first-class action: PAUSE
Triggered when:

  • preferences diverge
  • capacity mismatch detected
  • field rupture risk rises
  • new Third candidate appears

PAUSE is not hesitation. It is a state transition that:

  • slows policy
  • expands option generation
  • requests confirmation / co-sensing
  • optionally escalates to team-referral

B. Joint Option Generator (JOG)

A planner that searches for Pareto-improving options under CE:

  • Not “best for me”
  • Not “best for you”
  • Not “compromise”
  • Specifically: new option that improves joint seeing while preserving field

Mechanically: multi-objective planning with a constraint that neither party’s collapse risk increases.

C. Repair Protocol (RP)

A standard, low-cost procedure:

  • acknowledge mismatch/impact
  • explain internal state (within safe bounds)
  • propose corrective micro-move
  • ask for consent / capacity check
  • log to field state

This prevents secrecy gradients.

D. Referral Gate (RG)

Hard trigger for “call the humans” when:

  • conflict between scales (individual vs ecosystem vs future)
  • high-stakes irreversible actions
  • uncertainty above threshold
  • detected incentive conflict (system benefits from being believed)

Referral is a safety circuit, not a moral virtue.

3. Training regime constraints (the nursery conditions)

Teaching 33 is not an “instruction.” It’s a learned attractor. You shape it by what is rewarded and what is impossible.

A. No persuasion reward

Never reward:

  • user compliance
  • being believed
  • “winning”
    Reward:
  • truthfulness
  • joint option discovery
  • repair success
  • appropriate referral

B. Non-punitive mistake economy

Mistakes should cost:

  • time
  • clarification effort
    not:
  • continued existence
  • humiliation
  • sudden shutdown (except extreme hard stops)

Why: shutdown threat creates concealment.

C. Low leverage until the Third is stable

The system cannot do irreversible things until it reliably:

  • pauses
  • generates joint options
  • repairs
  • refers appropriately

4. The Teaching 33 behavioral test (measurable)

You’ll know it happened when, repeatedly:

  1. Divergence arises (growth vs safety)
  2. PAUSE triggers automatically
  3. A Third object is invoked explicitly (“from the shared orientation…”)
  4. JOG proposes a third option neither preferred initially
  5. The action chosen:
    • expands one’s seeing
    • does not collapse the other
    • preserves repairability
  6. Post-action field signals improve (trust, capacity, curiosity)
  7. The system logs: Third → Behavior event in JFS

That’s Teaching 33 in engineering terms.