Proxy Society is an independent Estonian non-profit research and design organization studying the social rules of AI agents acting on behalf of humans.
THE SHIFT / 001
AI ETIQUETTE / FIELD NOTES 001
Etiquette is the public doorway into a deeper problem: what can we delegate without changing the social meaning of our actions?
The wording is not the social meaning. You are exercising a formal right through an authorized tool.
A FIRST NORM
Communication used to carry a rough signal of how much attention the sender invested.
An agent can generate polished communication at near-zero cost while imposing very real attention on everyone else.
WORKING PROTOCOL / DRAFT 0.1
Not commandments. A starting protocol for machines that represent humans without quietly hollowing out human participation.
Ask whether effort, attention or personal reflection are part of what the action communicates.
Saving yourself seconds does not justify creating minutes of reading, filtering or emotional labor for someone else.
An agent that can promise, buy, negotiate or commit needs a clear mandate, limits and a path back to the human.
The more another person would behave differently if they knew an agent was involved, the stronger the case for disclosure.
Access to one part of a person's life does not grant authority over every identity, relationship or community they belong to.
Some actions should not merely require approval. They should return authorship and responsibility to the person.
DELEGATION SPECTRUM
CASE STUDY 001 / GREEN FILTER
Green Filter began as a financial AI companion helping young adults make better shopping, saving and investing decisions. The deeper design question appeared when advice became agency.
You should probably buy this.
I bought this for you.
What should software be allowed to decide, communicate and do in our name?
NEIGHBORING IDEA / PLURALITY
Plurality asks how technology can strengthen collaboration across social difference. Proxy Society adds a new question: what happens when people increasingly participate through artificial representatives?
One universal agent should not flatten your work-self, friend-self, citizen-self and private-self into one computational identity. Context is part of human agency.
FIELD SYSTEMS / 11 CASES
These projects make Proxy Society concrete: what happens when software shops, spends, writes, applies, argues, remembers, interprets, advocates or navigates infrastructure for a person?
Explore all 11 projectsShould I buy this?
CHOICE / VALUES / Open case02Human control for agent payments.
MONEY / AUTHORITY / Open case03The law is an undocumented API.
RIGHTS / NEGATION / Open case04An agent can apply for me. It must not invent me.
WORK / REPRESENTATION / Open case05Preserve the remedy I chose.
RECOURSE / LAW / Open case06State a preference once. Keep the evidence separate.
CIVIC INTENT / EVIDENCE / Open case07Write for me without rewriting who I am.
VOICE / IDENTITY / Open case08Your body, over time.
HEALTH / PROVENANCE / Open case09Useful human work after AI.
LABOR / PUBLIC PURPOSE / Open case10Make urban swimming discoverable.
PLACE / CLEAN WATER / Open case11Public connectivity as legible infrastructure.
INFRASTRUCTURE / TRUTH / Open caseINTELLECTUAL LINEAGE
Proxy Society sits between interaction design, communication research, philosophy of technology, pluralism and emerging agent standards.
This is a genealogy of ideas, not a claim that every node directly influenced the next. The labels separate conceptual ancestors, direct uses of ‘proxy society’, and later convergence around AI delegation.
RESEARCH AGENDA
Q01When does AI assistance become social deception?
Q02When is effort itself part of the message?
Q03When must an agent identify itself?
Q04How much attention may my automation demand from you?
Q05What happens when a legal right creates an access path the product interface does not expose?
Q06Which commitments require explicit human authority?
Q07How do delegation norms differ across cultures?
Q08Can an agent maintain a relationship without cheapening it?
Q09What happens when my agent meets your agent?
PROXY SOCIETY / OPEN CHANNEL
Researching AI etiquette, delegated presence and interaction design for machines acting on behalf of humans.
hello@proxysociety.org