BEFORE LAUNCH: A Design-Stage Systems Engineering Doctrine for Autonomous Artificial Intelligence

Particular emphasis is placed on epistemic discipline. The doctrine prohibits self-closing assurance, distinguishes absence of evidence from evidence of failure, and treats evaluator independence as a dependency and common-cause property rather than merely an organizational separation. Thresholds, configuration changes, verification horizons, and assurance debt are treated as explicit engineering objects with provenance and lifecycle status.

Physical Oracles and related research mechanisms are defined as non-normative epistemic instruments rather than substitutes for qualification or authorization evidence. The doctrine therefore functions not as a safety case or operational authorization, but as a design-stage architecture specifying the conditions and evidence pathways through which those downstream determinations can eventually be established.</p>