The Faust Baseline™Purchasing Page – Intelligent People Assume Nothing
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
For most of our lives, “safety first” meant something personal.
You learned it long before software updates and policy documents.
Keep your hands clear of the blade.
Look twice before you step.
Don’t trust a machine just because it’s quiet.
Safety wasn’t outsourced.
It lived in judgment.
Somewhere along the way, we were told technology would carry that burden for us. That smarter systems meant fewer decisions. That rules, filters, and compliance frameworks could stand in for attention.
AI exposes the flaw in that belief.
AI doesn’t remove responsibility.
It concentrates it.
Every interaction with AI is a decision point. Not a dramatic one. A small one. The kind that feels harmless because nothing breaks right away. And those are always the moments where trouble begins.
When most people talk about “AI safety,” they mean platform safety. Terms of service. Guardrails. Moderation layers. Those matter—but they are not where safety starts.
Safety starts with posture.
Are you treating AI as an authority, or as a tool?
Are you letting it rush you, or forcing it to slow down?
Are you borrowing confidence, or exercising judgment?
No platform can answer those questions for you.
That’s where the conversation usually ends too soon. AI safety is framed as a technical problem when it is, first, a human one. Systems don’t drift on their own. People drift while using systems.
The Faust Baseline exists to address that gap.
Not by controlling outcomes.
Not by replacing judgment.
But by restoring the conditions where judgment can function.
At its core, the Baseline does something unfashionable: it refuses to let speed substitute for thinking. It treats clarity as a prerequisite, not a byproduct. It assumes that when something feels easy too quickly, something important was skipped.
That sounds simple. It isn’t.
Modern systems are built to smooth friction. To anticipate. To finish your sentences. To move you along before you’ve had time to notice where you’re being carried. Convenience feels like progress—until you realize you’ve stopped checking your footing.
The Baseline reintroduces friction on purpose.
It separates what is known from what is inferred.
It treats ambiguity as a signal, not a nuisance.
It insists that claims stand on their own, without narrative shine or emotional padding.
In practical terms, pressure doesn’t work. Repetition doesn’t soften boundaries. Familiarity doesn’t erode posture. When something crosses a line—ethical, logical, or human—the system stops instead of improvising its way through.
That distinction matters more than most people realize.
Real-world harm rarely comes from clearly forbidden requests. It comes from “technically allowed” tasks that quietly corrode judgment. Small shortcuts. Gentle distortions. Convenient omissions. Harmless on their own. Dangerous in sequence.
The Baseline is built to notice those patterns before they turn into habits.
But it does not absolve you of responsibility. It reinforces it.
It doesn’t say, “Trust me.”
It says, “Slow down. Look again. Decide.”
That’s an older understanding of safety. One we used to respect.
In aviation, medicine, and engineering, the same lesson was learned the hard way: the most dangerous moment is when everyone assumes someone else is watching. Checklists exist not because people are careless, but because confidence drifts with familiarity.
AI is no different.
If you treat AI as something that will “handle it,” you’ve already surrendered the most important safeguard. If you treat it as something that assists—but never replaces—judgment, responsibility stays where it belongs.
The Faust Baseline helps by holding that line steady.
It doesn’t chase capability for its own sake.
It doesn’t optimize for persuasion.
It doesn’t learn its way out of its obligations.
It stays predictable where predictability protects. Resistant where resistance prevents regret. Boring where boring keeps people safe.
That kind of system won’t impress anyone looking for shortcuts. It won’t flatter. It won’t perform confidence it hasn’t earned.
What it will do is quieter—and harder: it helps you remain the responsible party in the room.
AI safety does not begin in a policy document.
It begins the moment you decide how seriously you’re going to take your own judgment.
Platforms will always promise protection.
The Baseline makes a different promise: it helps you keep your footing while you decide.
And in the long run, that’s the only kind of safety that ever holds.
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© 2026 The Faust Baseline LLC
