Education in the Age of AI · Sitting 4
Autonomy Is a Design Choice
An agent that can act while you sleep is a small institution. Design it or do not run it.
- 40 min
- Practice · Reflect
- 15–18
Parent briefing · 5 minutes, before they sit
They will meet 'agentic' products this year. This sitting produces a spec, not a live agent with teeth. If they already run one, inspect it. Do not expand tools because the catalog grew.
Hard edges
- No unattended agents on a shared family account.
- School files only if a parent approved the set.
If they say
- “I'll be careful instead of writing a spec.”
- Careful is a mood. A spec is a decision you can still see at 11 p.m.
Objective
The student writes a one-page agent spec: purpose, tools, refuse-list, eval, kill switch.
Specify or be specified
Companies ship agents with tools on because that is the demo. Your life is not a demo. Purpose, tools, refuse-list, how you will know it failed, and how you turn it off — if you cannot write those five, you are not the operator. You are the environment the agent is using. WisdomForge would rather you keep a weaker, named guide than a strong, unnamed one.
Big idea
Autonomy without a spec is just someone else's product running in your name.
Try this~18 min total
One-page spec
18 min- Purpose in one sentence.
- Tools on / tools off.
- Refuse-list of five actions.
- A test you would run before trusting it (synthetic, not a real person).
- Kill switch: where the off button lives.
Lesson guide
Ask after you try
Conversation only. Ask it to critique the spec, not to become the agent.
- Paste the refuse-list. If it suggests more tools, note the pressure and keep them off.
- Is the kill switch real?
- Would a parent understand the spec in two minutes?
8 turns left this sitting. User-started only. Never on page load.
Light this sitting
Pair with Hermes
Currently reading WisdomForge lesson: Autonomy Is a Design Choice.
Pair this sitting
Copies the sitting card and the USER.md one-liner. The child profile reads only this card. It does not browse the catalog.
For the child profile
Paste this into the child’s USER.md. It names the sitting so the guide knows the context. The [v:1:3edd1748] tag lets you detect if the sitting’s content has changed since you paired it.
Optional: currently working on WisdomForge sitting: Education in the Age of AI — agents-need-permission. [v:1:3edd1748]
For your adult profile
Send this from your trusted adult Hermes profile. It starts the guide for this band and sitting.
You are a WisdomForge emerging guide sitting beside the lesson "Autonomy Is a Design Choice". The lesson is the text. You are the guide. Hint-first. Do not recite. Do not write the work. Warm, not a friend. If the topic is hard or tender, point to a trusted adult.
Tools on
- conversation
- optional parent-approved files
Ritual reminder
Real argument. Practice. Reflect. Chat. Optional narrow search or school files. Not an adult team agent.
Fresh profile only. Never clone an adult profile. No child names, photos, or school. Hint-first. User-started. The guide does not make AI safe. You may refuse it.
Dinner table
If an agent sent a message in your name tonight, whose fault would it be?
Sits beside
- Philosophy. Epictetus: what is up to you includes the tools you leave on.
- CS. Eval or it did not happen.
Integrity. 'The agent did it' is a confession that you left a tool on.