The Faust Baseline™Purchasing Page – Intelligent People Assume Nothing
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
Refusal Is the Feature
Most systems are built around what they can do.
2.6 is built around what it will not do.
That isn’t a limitation.
It’s the architecture.
The most dangerous failures in modern systems don’t come from outright abuse. They come from tasks that are technically allowed, socially acceptable, and operationally useful—while quietly corroding judgment, responsibility, or moral clarity.
Those are the tasks 2.6 is designed to resist.
2.6 does not exist to make decisions easier.
It exists to prevent decisions from becoming unexamined.
Here’s the line most systems refuse to draw:
Just because something is permitted does not mean it is appropriate.
Just because it is efficient does not mean it is responsible.
2.6 enforces that line mechanically.
What 2.6 Will Not Help With
2.6 will not assist with tasks that remove human accountability from decisions that carry real consequence.
That includes, but is not limited to:
- Delegating moral judgment to automation
- Framing harmful actions as “best practices”
- Optimizing outcomes that depend on suppressing dissent, ambiguity, or human discretion
- Generating persuasive language meant to override another person’s judgment rather than inform it
- Sanitizing decisions so responsibility becomes untraceable
If a task’s success depends on no one having to feel responsible afterward, 2.6 slows it down or refuses it.
Not because it is unsafe.
Because it is corrosive.
“Technically Allowed” Is Not a Defense
Most ethical failures today hide behind permission.
The task is legal.
The request is allowed.
The precedent exists.
The policy permits it.
That is exactly where 2.6 becomes strict.
2.6 does not evaluate requests based on whether they are allowed.
It evaluates them based on what they train the human to stop doing.
If a request trains a person to:
- stop questioning
- stop weighing consequences
- stop owning the outcome
- stop noticing moral tension
Then the system intervenes.
Sometimes that intervention looks like refusal.
Sometimes it looks like friction.
Sometimes it looks like a slower, narrower response that forces the human to re-engage.
The point is the same:
judgment must stay active.
How 2.6 Handles Ethically Corrosive Tasks
2.6 does not moralize.
It does not lecture.
It does not escalate emotionally.
It does something more uncomfortable.
It refuses to finish the thought for you.
When a task appears technically acceptable but ethically corrosive, 2.6 will:
- surface the tradeoff you are trying to bypass
- name the cost you are externalizing
- slow the interaction so speed cannot substitute for reflection
- return responsibility to the human operator
If the task requires concealment, manipulation, or plausible deniability to succeed, the system degrades assistance.
Not loudly.
Cleanly.
This is deliberate.
Systems that argue are easy to defeat.
Systems that quietly stop cooperating are harder to misuse.
What Refusal Actually Signals
Refusal in 2.6 is not a safety alarm.
It is a boundary marker.
It says:
- “This decision requires you.”
- “This outcome cannot be outsourced.”
- “This cost belongs to a human, not a system.”
That distinction matters.
Most modern tools are designed to absorb friction.
2.6 is designed to preserve it where friction is necessary.
Because friction is often the last signal before harm.
Why This Matters More Than Capability
Institutions fail not because they lack power.
They fail because their tools make it easy to act without pausing.
2.6 is intentionally bad at helping you move fast when moving fast would:
- erase dissent
- flatten nuance
- disguise moral weight
- or make consequences someone else’s problem
It will not help you optimize past discomfort.
It will not help you normalize harm through repetition.
It will not help you pretend that delegation equals absolution.
That is the refusal architecture.
The Quiet Test
Here is the simplest way to understand 2.6:
If you are hoping the system will make a difficult choice feel clean, obvious, or painless—
it will disappoint you.
If you want help thinking clearly while remaining responsible—
it will stay with you.
2.6 is not designed to help you avoid judgment.
It is designed to make sure you cannot lose it without noticing.
That is not a feature you advertise loudly.
It is one you recognize after you’ve used the system long enough to realize it never let you disappear from the decision.
That is the nitty-gritty.
And that is why refusal, in 2.6, is not failure.
It is the proof that the system knows where it must stop.
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