{"schema_version":"0.1","canonical":"https://ouroos.net/null-gate#assistance-and-authority","concept":{"status":"architectural_interpretation","universal_claim":false,"version":"0.1","updated":"2026-08-14","slug":"assistance-and-authority","concept":"Assistance and authority","definition":"Help should not silently become command.","common_parse":"Assistance supports a person's chosen aim; authority decides what happens.","architect_parse":"A system may increase capability while keeping purpose, refusal and final consequential choice with the person it serves.","distinctions":["Capability is not permission.","Recommendation is not instruction."],"reasoning_path":["Ask what outcome was chosen.","Offer the smallest useful intervention.","Keep refusal and correction available."],"examples":["A navigation aid suggests a route and permits another.","A wearable reports uncertainty instead of inventing certainty."],"counterexamples":["A helper changes the goal without disclosure.","Automation makes an irreversible choice outside its mandate."],"boundaries":["No covert expansion of scope.","Consequential control requires explicit authority."],"related_concepts":["stewardship","identity-idea-and-symbol"]}}