Open standards & artifacts for accountable systems.

Glossary entry

Permanent link /glossary/ethical-interrupts

Ethical Interrupts

Glossary entry in Decision states & edges. Definitions, checks, and evidence for Ethical Interrupts.

Glossary index

Return to the glossary index.

Explore 13 glossary territories and search 211 terms from one place.

Browse the glossary

Quick takeaways

Automatic system-level halts triggered by anomalies, harm indicators, or policy boundary breaches.

Definition

Automatic system-level halts triggered by anomalies, harm indicators, or policy boundary breaches. Ethical interrupts operationalize stoppability by turning warning signals into enforceable pauses.

They must include clear ownership, audit trails, and restart criteria so pauses protect people without becoming arbitrary lockouts.

Temporal
Scope
J. Decision states & edges. Where and how decisions flip from reversible to permanent.
Genealogy
Ethotechnics uses Ethical Interrupts to extend the j. decision states & edges vocabulary and connect governance, design, and policy teams.

Adjacent terms

Stoppability Time-to-Halt (TTH) Fail-Safe Mode

Related concepts

Also tagged: Temporal

Fail-Safe Mode Fail-Open Mode Fail-Silent Mode Crumple Zone / Human-as-Crumple-Zone Harm Visibility Dead Zones / Moral Dead Zones

Example corpus

  • A model-serving pipeline halts promotion when subgroup harm metrics breach policy limits and requires cross-functional signoff before restart.

References

Copy citation (APA/BibTeX)

Cite this glossary entry Formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS

Version

v1.1.0

Last updated

Jan 9, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Ethical Interrupts. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Ethical Interrupts." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Ethical Interrupts." Ethotechnics glossary. Jan 9, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_ethical-interrupts,
  title={Ethical Interrupts},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts},
  version={v1.1.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Ethical Interrupts
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts
ER  -

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: research@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Jan 9, 2026
  • Version: v1.1.0
  • DOI: Pending Zenodo deposit

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title + version, and link to the glossary permalink.

Archive snapshot: Wayback capture

Changelog

  • v1.1.0 · 2026-01-09 — Expanded scholarly metadata, operational tests, and provenance notes.
  • v1.0.0 · 2025-12-03 — Initial glossary release with stable permalinks.