Glossary entry

Reversibility

Definition

Whether a decision can be undone, and the people it decided about restored, at three levels: technical (the system can roll the change back), operational (the people who run it can do so in practice, by a stated deadline), and institutional (the institution can carry on without the system while it does). Reversibility is measured as time to restore, and a level with no evidence counts as not reversible.

AgencyVisibility

Tests that show it is in place

  • Critical actions have tested rollback or remediation paths that restore data and access.
  • Time-to-restore targets are met during drills and documented in the repair log.

Evidence to keep

  • Artifact: Documented rollback plan with owners, restoration steps, and eligibility criteria for reversals.
  • Behavior: Reversal executed during drills or incidents with people restored to their prior state.
  • Metric: Time-to-restore targets tracked and met across reversal events.

Related mechanisms

Related terms

Moral behavior (of systems) Ethotechnic audit Architecture over values Capability overhang Governability Case corrigibility Irreversibility index Legitimacy engineering
Cite this glossary entry · v1.17.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0

APA

Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Reversibility. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/reversibility

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute. "Reversibility." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/reversibility.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute. "Reversibility." Ethotechnics glossary. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/reversibility.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_reversibility,
  title={Reversibility},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/reversibility},
  version={v1.17.1}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Reversibility
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/reversibility
ER  -

Authorship

Contact: hello@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Oct 6, 2026
  • Version: v1.17.1

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

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

Archive: Wayback Machine history

Latest change

v1.17.1 · Oct 6, 2026 — Editorial revision. Titles are in sentence case. Pasted spec blocks are replaced with prose and worked examples, 79 operational tests are rewritten as pass conditions, 22 origin notes are rewritten or sourced, and unsourced superlatives are cut. No terms were added or removed, and permalinks are unchanged.

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