CORTICAL UNIVERSAL BIOS (C-UBIOS) The Universal Core Law A Pre-Decision Constitutional Protocol for Human–Artificial Intelligence Civilization

Humanity has reached a critical asymmetry: technological power has accelerated beyond historical limits, while the neurobiological architecture governing human decision-making remains largely unchanged. Under conditions of stress, urgency, and perceived existential threat, evolutionarily conserved subcortical reflexes can override cortical reasoning, enabling rapid yet irreversible decisions with catastrophic potential. This manifesto introduces Cortical Universal BIOS (C-UBIOS) as a civilization-level, pre-decision constitutional protocol designed to mitigate existential risk by inserting a mandatory cognitive-ethical control layer between decision and action in high-risk human and human–AI contexts. Drawing on neuroscience, ethics, and systems architecture, C-UBIOS does not evaluate decision content, but instead assesses cognitive state, decision irreversibility, and long-term consequence profiles. C-UBIOS operationalizes principles such as cognitive latency, rationalization barriers, multi-layer cortical oversight, strict artificial intelligence role limitation, and cognitive data minimalism. Artificial intelligence is explicitly constrained to a non-decisional role, functioning solely as a scenario simulation and plurality engine. Human responsibility remains non-transferable. The framework emphasizes consent-based legitimacy, constitutional compatibility, system fallibility, and strict boundary integrity to prevent technocratic overreach or surveillance misuse. Rather than proposing governance by machines, C-UBIOS represents a form of species-level self-restraint: an explicit admission that humanity cannot grant unlimited trust to its own reflexes when wielding irreversible technological power. This manifesto positions C-UBIOS as a foundational survival architecture for human–AI civilization, reframing slowness, pause, and plural deliberation as prerequisites for long-term civilizational continuity.