Edition Note: Three hardcover formats of Contained Autonomy are available. This edition is the clothbound hardcover version, printed on lighter paper stock to reduce weight and finished with a removable dust jacket.
Contained Autonomy examines the erosion of liberty that occurs when power operates without consequence. In modern institutions, intent is often treated as justification, outcomes are excused through abstraction, and authority increasingly acts without being required to explain itself. This failure is not rooted in malice, but in systems that allow autonomy, intelligence, and influence to scale without ethical containment.
The framework articulated in this book was conceived as these failures became impossible to ignore, particularly as artificial intelligence and large language models demonstrated how optimization without moral constraint can amplify harm without intent. The concern addressed here is not fear of machines, but the broader recognition that any intelligence granted power, human or artificial, must be bound to consequence, explanation, and restraint.
Contained Autonomy lays out a structural doctrine for preserving freedom without surrendering accountability. It introduces a consequence-based model of autonomy, a diagnostic approach to evaluating power across individuals, institutions, and intelligent systems, and a tiered containment architecture for ethical escalation and governance. The work critiques unrestrained optimization, narrative abstraction, and institutional drift, arguing that liberty collapses not when it is challenged, but when it is left undefined and unaccountable.
Rather than proposing policy prescriptions or technical implementations, this book establishes a foundational framework for ethical governance, one designed to endure institutional failure, technological acceleration, and moral abstraction. It is intended as a reference work for scholars, professionals, and system designers concerned with the long-term relationship between liberty, intelligence, and consequence.
外文書商品之書封，為出版社提供之樣本。實際出貨商品，以出版社所提供之現有版本為主。部份書籍，因出版社供應狀況特殊，匯率將依實際狀況做調整。
無庫存之商品，在您完成訂單程序之後，將以空運的方式為你下單調貨。為了縮短等待的時間，建議您將外文書與其他商品分開下單，以獲得最快的取貨速度，平均調貨時間為1~2個月。
為了保護您的權益，「三民網路書店」提供會員七日商品鑑賞期(收到商品為起始日)。
若要辦理退貨，請在商品鑑賞期內寄回，且商品必須是全新狀態與完整包裝(商品、附件、發票、隨貨贈品等)否則恕不接受退貨。
