About

About Alignment Theory

Alignment Theory is an independent research project by Michael Nathan Bower.

It studies how adaptive systems preserve coherent agency under constraint across human formation, institutions, and artificial systems.

The work is evolving. Older pages remain available as archive and earlier framing, while the current entry path begins with Start Here and the Revised Framework Center.

Origin and stewardship

Claim lineage, not control.

Michael Nathan Bower (Michael Bower) is the originator and developer of Alignment Theory and the Alignment Governance Stack. The site's attribution record documents the framework's authorship. The AGS repository's Origin and Stewardship statement, repository history, and citation metadata document its technical lineage.

Attribution establishes historical and technical lineage. The AGS name identifies the originating framework; generic governance principles are not claimed as proprietary concepts. Independent implementations, critiques, forks, and competing architectures are legitimate. Attribution to the originator does not erase later contributions.

The governor must also be governed. Stewardship should remain reviewable and challengeable, with visible reasons for changes. Origin does not make a claim immune to evidence or criticism.

Cultivated Alignment and its tail-preserving research direction extend this program through questions about governed experience and self-governance. They remain research hypotheses, not demonstrated model/policy internalization.

Authorial role

Research direction

Michael Nathan Bower develops the conceptual framework, chooses the claims that appear on the site, and remains responsible for the published work.

Alignment Theory is the foundation: capacity, participation, support/substitution, constraints, agency, authority, continuity, governance, and internalization. Human Agency Infrastructure (HAPI) applies the framework to human and institutional agency; the Alignment Governance Stack (AGS) applies it to delegated AI action. The current synthesis is working conceptual and design research, not peer-reviewed validation. Biblical and Babel interpretations remain a separately identified philosophical/theological layer.

AI assistance

Disclosure

This project is developed through an AI-assisted research and writing process. The author directs the inquiry, develops the conceptual framework, selects and revises the arguments, and remains responsible for the published claims.

AI tools are used to organize notes, structure drafts, support research, and assist with implementation.

Reading path

Current public entry points

Start Here

The shortest path into the current framework.

Open Start Here

Research

Papers, stress tests, AI alignment research, and the archive.

Open Research