Description of subprojects and results, including major changes from the original proposal
1. What Was Completed
The project produced two substantive published works:
Live Governance Framework – AI tools for coordination without centralisation: mapping the core paradigm and distinguishing live, adaptive governance interventions from conventional bureaucratic approaches.
The Internal Perspective – The Locus of Law's Normative Effect: an exploration of how law's authority derives from the bottom up through its internalisation by countless individuals with their own normative universes, rather than from top-down enforcement.
2. Reflections
The project didn't fully deliver on its original objectives. Early on I pivoted to focus more on theory and philosophy, with the plan that these would serve as foundations for more practical deliverables. This was intellectually rewarding - I now have a much clearer sense of how legal philosophy and the functioning of the common law connects to current debates in philosophy of mind and cognition. However, I underestimated the complexity and scale of the theoretical challenge, which meant I was unable to deliver the outputs I would have liked to.
Progress slowed as time went on. The biggest structural challenge was working in isolation. Early on, the novelty of the ideas was self-sustaining motivation. But without a regular community of practice or feedback loop, maintaining consistent execution became harder over time. More structure around collaboration would be valuable in future.
3. Ongoing Theoretical Work
I've developed a substantial body of exploratory drafts that I envisage forming a series framing the common law as a diverse intelligence, exploring how a legal system maintains coherent identity and purpose across centuries. The central argument is that the common law's remarkable adaptive capacity is a structural consequence of how it processes, stores, and reapplies legal wisdom through the doctrine of stare decisis. This enables lived disputes to function as a generative source of learning, the lessons of which are captured in judicial precedent and reintegrated into social reality through future application.
4. Looking Forward
I'll continue developing these ideas independently, though I'm still working out what form that takes. The core thesis feels stronger than when I started, and I consider the common law remains a uniquely fertile lens for thinking about AI governance and decentralised institutional design (precisely because it lets us study collective intelligence from the inside out). I'm grateful for the support that made this phase possible.
Spending breakdown
75 hours independent work at USD 40 per hour.