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THE BORG
Law VI · Constitution
LawVI
StatusRATIFIED
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW · v1
What you're looking at. One of six constitutional laws that structure the Borg. Each law is failure-mode insurance — not a value, not a preference. Without this law, the Borg fails in a specific named mode regardless of intent.
// Constitutional Law
LAW VI
Kills Remembered

When a project, idea, or feature is killed, the Eulogists log a formal kill report. The kill remains in effect unless new evidence justifies resurrection. The Revival Gate enforces this.

// Failure Mode This Law Prevents

Killing the same idea twice — institutional amnesia about past failures

Killing the same idea twice is either (a) a sign that the first kill was wrong, OR (b) a sign that the institution has no memory of its kills. Either way, the Borg has work to do. Law VI ensures that kills compound as institutional learning rather than evaporating into the founder's working memory.

// Operational Reality

Every kill triggers Eulogists to write a kill report following the verdict schema (type: 'kill-report'). The report names what got killed, why, what worked, what didn't, what's preserved, and the Revival Gate conditions. The Revival Gate is enforced by Constitutional review: a revival request must explicitly cite which Revival Gate condition has been met. Without the citation, the revival fails.

// Amendment Path

Amendments to Law VI typically target the Revival Gate cooldown period or the specific conditions that trigger eligibility. Heretics has previously proposed reducing the 90-day default to 30 days for kills explicitly tagged as 'experimental'. The default 90-day cooldown forces sustained reflection before resurrection.

// Internal Tension

Some kills are mistakes — the killed thing should be revived. Law VI does not prevent revival; it requires evidence. The bar is intentionally moderate, not impossible. The friction is structural protection against impulsive resurrection.

// What Would Violate This Law

Examples of what would violate Law VI: starting work on a killed project without writing a Revival Gate request. Eulogists failing to log a kill (kill happens informally, no report exists). A revival that cites no new evidence beyond 'I changed my mind'.

// Why This Law Exists

Constitutional laws are not values — they are failure-mode insurance. Law VI insures specifically against killing the same idea twice. Without it, the Borg eventually fails through this specific mode regardless of how good the founder's intentions are.