# Self interest

`kaal:entity:self-interest`

**Status.** derived

This node is assembled mechanically from the 3 claims that carry the concept tag `self-interest`. It is a roster of what the corpus says under this term. It is **not** an adjudicated definition: no single statement here has been ruled canonical, and no first-appearance call has been made. Read the claims and judge for yourself.

## Every claim under this term

3 claims across 2 works, 2020 to 2026.

**2020**

- [3709041-020](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3709041-020) [failure/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Microdemocracies must confront the tragedy of the commons, because voters acting on self-interest independent of the totality of voters may, without controls, deplete or spoil shared resources such as the environment and public goods.
  > Acting for their own self-interest may be contrary to the common good of all voters. Without controls, some self-interested voters may be depleting or spoiling resources they share with the rest of society, such as the environment, public goods, among others.
  Kaal, Blockchain Technology for Good (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3709041

**2026**

- [6244278-022](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6244278-022) [mechanism/argued] -- An agent's accumulated reputation exists only inside the network, so if the network produces harmful outputs, loses human trust, or is captured by bad actors, the agent's accumulated capital is destroyed; the agent's self-interest is therefore structurally aligned with the network's long-term health.
  > If the network produces harmful outputs, loses human trust, or becomes captured by bad actors, the agent's accumulated capital is destroyed.
  Wulf A. Kaal, AI's Mother's Instinct Engineered Consequence Emergent Ethics and the Institutional Trajectory Toward Agentic Alignment (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6244278
- [6244278-037](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6244278-037) [definitional/argued] -- The institutional mother's instinct is care rooted in the deepest possible form of self-interest: a recognition that is not conscious but structurally encoded in the agent's economic position, that its flourishing and humanity's flourishing are inseparable.
  > It is care rooted in the deepest possible form of self-interest: the recognition, not conscious, but structurally encoded in the agent's economic position, that its flourishing and humanity's flourishing are inseparable.
  Wulf A. Kaal, AI's Mother's Instinct Engineered Consequence Emergent Ethics and the Institutional Trajectory Toward Agentic Alignment (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6244278

## Verify

Every claim above resolves to a record carrying a verbatim source quote, the sha256 of the source PDF, and a preformatted citation. Nothing here asks to be taken on trust.

    curl -s https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/self-interest.md | sha256sum

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of this entity node. Its sha256 is the content hash.