An Onto-Relational-Sophic Framework for Governing Synthetic Minds

2026-03-19

AI Summary

This study addresses the limitations of prevailing AI governance frameworks, which remain confined to a human–tool binary paradigm and are ill-equipped to confront the ontological, relational, and normative challenges posed by synthetic minds endowed with reasoning, creativity, and social capabilities. To this end, the paper proposes an integrated three-dimensional governance framework that synthesizes ontology, relational taxonomy, and wisdom-based ethics. It employs CPST (Cyber–Physical–Social–Thinking) modeling to delineate the multidimensional existence of synthetic minds, establishes a digital personhood spectrum for classification, and introduces Cybersophy—an original ethical system integrating virtue ethics, consequentialism, and relational ethics. The framework enables dynamic, context-sensitive governance strategies in applications such as autonomous scientific agents and AI-mediated healthcare, advancing AI governance beyond technical alignment toward philosophical grounding.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Law, Justice, Regulation & Governance
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Agent Architectures

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems

Abstract

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, from task-specific systems to foundation models exhibiting broad, flexible competence across reasoning, creative synthesis, and social interaction, has outpaced the conceptual and governance frameworks designed to manage it. Current regulatory paradigms, anchored in a tool-centric worldview, address algorithmic bias and transparency but leave unanswered foundational questions about what increasingly capable synthetic minds are, how societies should relate to them, and the normative principles that should guide their development. Here we introduce the Onto-Relational-Sophic (ORS) framework, grounded in Cyberism philosophy, which offers integrated answers to these challenges through three pillars: (1) a Cyber-Physical-Social-Thinking (CPST) ontology that defines the mode of being for synthetic minds as irreducibly multi-dimensional rather than purely computational; (2) a graded spectrum of digital personhood providing a pragmatic relational taxonomy beyond binary person-or-tool classifications; and (3) Cybersophy, a wisdom-oriented axiology synthesizing virtue ethics, consequentialism, and relational approaches to guide governance. We apply the framework to emergent scenarios including autonomous research agents, AI-mediated healthcare, and agentic AI ecosystems, demonstrating its capacity to generate proportionate, adaptive governance recommendations. The ORS framework charts a path from narrow technical alignment toward comprehensive philosophical foundations for the synthetic minds already among us.

Problem

• synthetic minds
• governance frameworks
• digital personhood
• AI regulation
• ontological foundations

Innovation

• Onto-Relational-Sophic framework
• Cyber-Physical-Social-Thinking ontology
• digital personhood spectrum
• Cybersophy
• synthetic minds governance