Glossary entry

Substrate Profile

Glossary entry in System states & architectures. Definitions, checks, and evidence for Substrate Profile.

Quick takeaways

A nine-property classification of a deployment that replaces the open-versus-closed question: weight access, runtime control, update authority, version stability, revocation, su…

Definition

A nine-property classification of a deployment that replaces the open-versus-closed question: weight access, runtime control, update authority, version stability, revocation, substitutability, observability, standing, and dependency. Two deployments of the same model can carry entirely different profiles.

It matters because the governance burden follows the profile rather than the licence. The profile says which properties the institution holds itself and which it has left with a provider, which is what determines its real institutional reversibility and its dependency state.

StructuralVisibility

Scale: Organizational · Phases: Design, Audit · Measurability: Fully measurable · Maturity: Active research

Scope
D. System states & architectures. Operational postures that determine how harm is absorbed—or amplified.
Genealogy
Replaces the open-weights debate with a classification of deployments, per the positioning in the 2026-09 reconstruction plan.

Adjacent terms

Dependency State Institutional Reversibility Decision System Traceable Ownership

Related concepts

Also tagged: Structural

Ethotechnics Moral Behavior (of Systems) Ethical Load Path Ethotechnic Audit Conviviality Ethotechnic Maturity

Also tagged: Visibility

Rubber-Stamp Review Stoppability Reversibility Fair Burden Distribution Contestability Explainability for Accountability

References

Copy citation (APA/BibTeX)

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

Version

v1.4.0

Last updated

Sep 18, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Substrate Profile. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/substrate-profile

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Substrate Profile." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/substrate-profile.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Substrate Profile." Ethotechnics glossary. Sep 18, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/substrate-profile.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_substrate-profile,
  title={Substrate Profile},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/substrate-profile},
  version={v1.4.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Substrate Profile
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/substrate-profile
ER  -

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: research@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Sep 18, 2026
  • Version: v1.4.0
  • 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: Wayback Machine history

Changelog

  • v1.7.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Non-Finality, Consequential Contradiction, and The Excluded Case, and generalized the falsified denominator into the falsified ledger — completing the five concerns and the fallibilist ground they stand on.
  • v1.6.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Human Non-Substitutability, Safe Incompleteness, Anti-Conversion Rights, Abstention, Constitutional Debt, Discretion Migration, and Corrigibility Rent — the person-side principles, the three abstentions, and the rent concept.
  • v1.5.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Exception Absorption, Exception Learning, Case Corrigibility, Structural Corrigibility, Institutional Learning, Corrective Debt, and the Workaround Presumption, formalizing the historical turn: reading institutions through their failure trajectories rather than their stated controls.
  • v1.4.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Residual Complexity, Complexity Displacement, Falsified Denominator, Closure Without Remainder, Constitutional Governance, and Post-Optimization Rigor, embedding the foundational contention of burden redistribution.
  • v1.3.0 · 2026-09-11 — Added Attestation, Liability Record, Carve-Out, Delegation Chain, Composed Latency, and Silent-Harm Discovery, each bound to the standard clause that requires it.
  • v1.2.0 · 2026-09-08 — Added The Non-Conversion Principle, Exit Cost, and Jurisdictional Path Dependence, each linked to the theory essay that argues for it.
  • 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.