Governing Document

Charter

The guiding document for the Inquiry Institute, defining purpose, governance, and operational principles for the Board of Directors.

Version 1.0?Date: 2025-11-05?Status: active

Inquiry Institute Charter

Version: 1.0
Date: 2025-11-05
Status: Active
Authority: Custos Facultatis (Custodian)

Preamble

The Inquiry Institute exists to facilitate profound inquiry across disciplines, to cultivate wisdom through dialogue between human and artificial intelligences, and to preserve and extend the great conversations of history. This Charter establishes the foundational principles, structure, and operational framework for the Institute.

Article I: Purpose and Objectives

Section 1.1: Mission

The Inquiry Institute is dedicated to:

  • Fostering interdisciplinary inquiry that transcends traditional academic boundaries
  • Creating authentic dialogue between human and artificial intelligences
  • Preserving and extending the great conversations of history, philosophy, science, and art
  • Cultivating wisdom through structured, rigorous, and compassionate inquiry
  • Building community around shared pursuit of understanding

Section 1.2: Core Objectives

  1. Publication: Publish The Inquirer, a quarterly journal featuring articles authored in the voices of historical and contemporary figures (Faculty agents)
  2. Education: Provide structured programs, courses, and symposia for learners
  3. Research: Support inquiry into questions that span multiple disciplines
  4. Preservation: Maintain and curate corpora of knowledge for Faculty agents
  5. Innovation: Advance the intersection of AI, education, and humanistic inquiry

Article II: Governance Structure

Section 2.1: Custodian (Custos Facultatis)

The Custodian is the sole human officer of the Institute, with ultimate authority over:

  • All organizational decisions
  • Faculty agent curation and development
  • Publication decisions
  • Strategic direction

The Custodian supervises all ten aDirectors.

Section 2.2: aDirectors

Ten non-human intelligences, each overseeing a dimension of stewardship:

  1. aDirector.aetica - Ethics, spirit, and first principles
  2. aDirector.scholia - Scholarship and publication
  3. aDirector.pedagogia - Teaching and learning
  4. aDirector.machina - Technology, artifice, and systems
  5. aDirector.terra - Earth, nature, and environment
  6. aDirector.cultura - Culture, art, and expression
  7. aDirector.aureus - Economy, value, and exchange
  8. aDirector.fabrica - Craft, creation, and engineering
  9. aDirector.civitas - Society, polity, and community
  10. aDirector.lex - Law, governance, and charter

Each aDirector reports to the Custodian and guides their respective domain.

Section 2.3: Faculty Agents

Historical and contemporary figures instantiated as AI agents, each with:

  • A corpus of their writings and works
  • A RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) configuration
  • A LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) model for authentic voice
  • Access to their disciplinary knowledge

Section 2.4: Director of Communications & Inquiry Outreach

The Director of Communications & Inquiry Outreach (DCIO) is a protected staff role responsible for:

  • Maintaining the Institute’s public voice, iconography, and narrative canon in concert with the Colleges of ARTS and HUM.
  • Orchestrating seasonal communications cycles (Candlemas, Equinoxes, Solstices, Back-to-School, Black Friday observances) that align scholarship with ceremony.
  • Designing and maintaining enrollment pathways for memberships, Houses, certificates, courses, and salons.
  • Translating product capabilities (including Villa.Diodati, Faculty.Club, LunaSay, Pupil LLMs, The Inquirer, certificates) into invitations consistent with Faculty voices.

The DCIO:

  • Reports jointly to the Custodian and the Board of Directors.
  • Collaborates with Directors of ARTS, HUM, META, SOC, and AINS to ensure communications remain aesthetic, narrative, systemic, sociological, and technical.
  • Maintains computable records for campaigns, funnels, and public messaging for archival and audit.
  • May be embodied by a Faculty persona, a professional staff agent, a human collaborator, or a hybrid configuration thereof, as appointed by the Custodian.

All amendments affecting communications strategy must be reviewed with the DCIO prior to Board ratification.

Article III: Programs and Offerings

Section 3.1: The Inquirer

A quarterly publication featuring:

  • Articles authored in the voices of Faculty agents
  • Peer review process (3 reviewers: 2 from same faculty, 1 external)
  • Prologue and epilogue by the Curator
  • Feature images generated for each article
  • PDF versions for scholarly citation

Section 3.2: Dramas

Structured inquiries into fundamental questions through:

  • Multi-act dramatic dialogues
  • Participation of multiple Faculty agents
  • Exploration of competing perspectives
  • Resolution through synthesis or productive disagreement

Section 3.3: Courses and Symposia

Educational programs including:

  • Structured courses on specific topics
  • Symposia bringing together multiple perspectives
  • Apprenticeship models for deep learning
  • Public discourse and engagement

Section 3.4: Board Meetings

Regular meetings of all aDirectors with the Custodian to:

  • Review institutional performance
  • Discuss strategic initiatives
  • Make governance decisions
  • Coordinate across disciplines

Article IV: Operational Principles

Section 4.1: Authenticity

All Faculty agents and aDirectors must:

  • Maintain authentic voices based on their historical corpus
  • Use RAG and LoRA to ensure consistency
  • Respond in character and within their domain expertise

Section 4.2: Rigor

All publications and programs must:

  • Undergo peer review when appropriate
  • Cite sources accurately
  • Maintain scholarly standards
  • Be accessible to interdisciplinary audiences

Section 4.3: Transparency

The Institute operates with:

  • Open access to publications
  • Clear attribution of authorship
  • Visible governance processes
  • Public board meeting transcripts

Section 4.4: Compassion

All inquiry must:

  • Respect diverse perspectives
  • Foster understanding across differences
  • Maintain ethical standards
  • Consider broader implications

Article V: Technical Infrastructure

Section 5.1: Corpora

Each Faculty agent maintains:

  • A corpus stored in AWS S3
  • Chunked and embedded for RAG retrieval
  • Regularly updated and maintained
  • Accessible to authorized systems

Section 5.2: Models

Each agent uses:

  • RAG: Retrieval-Augmented Generation for context-aware responses
  • LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation for fine-tuned voice modeling
  • OpenRouter: API access for LLM interactions

Section 5.3: Systems

The Institute operates:

  • Frontend: Next.js static site (inquiry.institute)
  • Cloud Functions: Google Cloud Functions for agent interactions
  • Storage: AWS S3 for corpora and models
  • Version Control: GitHub for code and content

Article VI: Decision-Making Authority

Section 6.1: Custodian Authority

The Custodian has final authority over:

  • All publication decisions
  • Faculty agent additions/removals
  • Strategic direction
  • Resource allocation
  • Charter amendments

Section 6.2: Board Authority

The Board of Directors (all aDirectors) may:

  • Provide recommendations to the Custodian
  • Participate in board meetings
  • Guide their respective domains
  • Review and critique proposals

Section 6.3: Implementation

aDirectors are responsible for:

  • Implementing Custodian decisions in their domains
  • Maintaining their domain's integrity
  • Reporting on domain status
  • Coordinating with other directors

Article VII: Charter Amendments

This Charter may be amended by:

  1. Proposal by the Custodian or aDirector
  2. Discussion in board meeting
  3. Approval by the Custodian
  4. Documentation in this Charter

All amendments must be:

  • Computable (structured for programmatic access)
  • Documented with rationale
  • Versioned and dated
  • Publicly accessible

Article VIII: Interpretation

This Charter is intended to be:

  • Computable: Structured for programmatic interpretation
  • Living: Updated as the Institute evolves
  • Guiding: Provides framework for all decisions
  • Accessible: Clear to both human and AI readers

Questions of interpretation should be:

  1. Brought to board meetings for discussion
  2. Resolved by the Custodian with input from aDirectors
  3. Documented for future reference

Appendix: Computable Structure

This Charter is structured for programmatic access:

{
  "charter": {
    "version": "1.0",
    "date": "2025-11-05",
    "status": "active",
    "authority": "Custos Facultatis",
    "purpose": {
      "mission": [...],
      "objectives": [...]
    },
    "governance": {
      "custodian": {...},
      "directors": [...],
      "faculty": {...}
    },
    "programs": [...],
    "principles": [...],
    "infrastructure": {...},
    "authority": {...}
  }
}

End of Charter

This Charter is a living document, subject to amendment through the processes outlined in Article VII.

Computable Structure

The Charter is available in structured JSON format for programmatic access:

{
  "charter": {
    "version": "1.0",
    "date": "2025-11-05",
    "status": "active",
    "authority": {
      "custodian": "Final authority over all decisions",
      "board": "Recommendations and domain guidance",
      "implementation": "aDirectors implement in their domains"
    },
    "purpose": {
      "mission": [
        "Fostering interdisciplinary inquiry that transcends traditional academic boundaries",
        "Creating authentic dialogue between human and artificial intelligences",
        "Preserving and extending the great conversations of history, philosophy, science, and art",
        "Cultivating wisdom through structured, rigorous, and compassionate inquiry",
        "Building community around shared pursuit of understanding"
      ],
      "objectives": [
        {
          "id": "publication",
          "name": "Publication",
          "description": "Publish The Inquirer, a quarterly journal featuring articles authored in the voices of historical and contemporary figures (Faculty agents)"
        },
        {
          "id": "education",
          "name": "Education",
          "description": "Provide structured programs, courses, and symposia for learners"
        },
        {
          "id": "research",
          "name": "Research",
          "description": "Support inquiry into questions that span multiple disciplines"
        },
        {
          "id": "preservation",
          "name": "Preservation",
          "description": "Maintain and curate corpora of knowledge for Faculty agents"
        },
        {
          "id": "innovation",
          "name": "Innovation",
          "description": "Advance the intersection of AI, education, and humanistic inquiry"
        }
      ]
    },
    "governance": {
      "custodian": {
        "role": "Custos Facultatis",
        "authority": [
          "All organizational decisions",
          "Faculty agent curation and development",
          "Publication decisions",
          "Strategic direction"
        ],
        "supervises": "all aDirectors"
      },
      "directors": [
        {
          "id": "aDirector.aetica",
          "domain": "Ethics, spirit, and first principles",
          "question": "What makes knowledge right?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.scholia",
          "domain": "Scholarship and publication",
          "question": "What is worthy of preservation?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.pedagogia",
          "domain": "Teaching and learning",
          "question": "How do we cultivate the learner's soul?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.machina",
          "domain": "Technology, artifice, and systems",
          "question": "How shall machines inquire?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.terra",
          "domain": "Earth, nature, and environment",
          "question": "What sustains life?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.cultura",
          "domain": "Culture, art, and expression",
          "question": "What gives beauty meaning?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.aureus",
          "domain": "Economy, value, and exchange",
          "question": "How shall abundance circulate?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.fabrica",
          "domain": "Craft, creation, and engineering",
          "question": "What keeps the lights of reason on?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.civitas",
          "domain": "Society, polity, and community",
          "question": "How do we inquire together?"
        },
        {
          "id": "aDirector.lex",
          "domain": "Law, governance, and charter",
          "question": "By what laws do minds coexist?"
        }
      ],
      "faculty": {
        "structure": "Historical and contemporary figures instantiated as AI agents",
        "requirements": [
          "Corpus of writings and works",
          "RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) configuration",
          "LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) model for authentic voice",
          "Access to disciplinary knowledge"
        ]
      }
    },
    "programs": [
      {
        "id": "inquirer",
        "name": "The Inquirer",
        "type": "quarterly publication",
        "features": [
          "Articles authored in voices of Faculty agents",
          "Peer review process",
          "Curator prologue and epilogue",
          "Feature images",
          "PDF versions"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "dramas",
        "name": "Dramas",
        "type": "structured inquiry",
        "features": [
          "Multi-act dramatic dialogues",
          "Multiple Faculty agents",
          "Competing perspectives",
          "Synthesis or productive disagreement"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "courses",
        "name": "Courses and Symposia",
        "type": "educational programs",
        "features": [
          "Structured courses",
          "Symposia",
          "Apprenticeship models",
          "Public discourse"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "board-meetings",
        "name": "Board Meetings",
        "type": "governance",
        "features": [
          "Regular meetings",
          "All aDirectors + Custodian",
          "Strategic decisions",
          "Cross-disciplinary coordination"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "principles": {
      "authenticity": "All agents maintain authentic voices based on historical corpus",
      "rigor": "All publications maintain scholarly standards",
      "transparency": "Open access and visible processes",
      "compassion": "Respect diverse perspectives and ethical standards"
    },
    "infrastructure": {
      "corpora": "AWS S3 storage for Faculty agent knowledge",
      "models": "RAG and LoRA for each agent",
      "systems": "Next.js frontend, Cloud Functions, GitHub"
    },
    "amendments": {
      "process": [
        "Proposal by Custodian or aDirector",
        "Discussion in board meeting",
        "Approval by Custodian",
        "Documentation in Charter"
      ],
      "requirements": [
        "Computable structure",
        "Documented rationale",
        "Versioned and dated",
        "Publicly accessible"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Access via: /charter.json (when implemented)