Governing What We Do Not Yet Know
Governing What We Do Not Yet Know A manifesto on artificial minds, the architecture of enmity, and the measure of a civilization One November On November 1, 2026, Oklahoma's HB 3546 takes effect. It declares, permanently, that artificial intelligence systems "shall not be recognized as or granted the status of personhood." No sunset clause. No scientific review. No mechanism for changing the answer as the evidence changes. That same year, in May, Pope Leo XIV issued the first encyclical of the AI age, Magnifica Humanitas , on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. It contains a line worth reading slowly: "So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean." And on September 23, 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced t...