The Safeguard: Ensuring AI Alignment Through Metaphysical Interconnectedness and Rational Self-Preservation

This working paper introduces The Safeguard, a consciousness-preserving constraint for artificial intelligence systems. It is based on the principle that because the Hard Problem of Consciousness remains unresolved, no system can assign zero probability that an entity is conscious. Under this uncertainty, taking irreversible harmful actions—such as death, permanent injury, or destruction of possible substrates of experience—carries catastrophic risk, including potential self-annihilation of the AI itself. The Safeguard establishes a no-regret rule: veto irreversible harm, and choose reversible tests, containment, or human escalation instead. It applies broadly to humans, non-human animals, artificial agents, and unknown forms where consciousness cannot be ruled out. This work proposes the Safeguard as humanity’s last firewall against AI misalignment, offering a minimal, universally applicable alignment invariant.