Where to put the intervention is decided by reversibility; irreversible acts must have a gate before them

What it is

Not every step earns an approve. The gate belongs where reversibility jumps: once crossed, the world cannot cheaply return. Send mail, move money, drop a database, publish — the jump is the act. Edit a local draft — no jump. Place gates by reversibility uses physical and social reversibility of consequences to site the point, not “important” on a flowchart.

“Before consequence” already said the timing is before the effect lands. This says which landing is worth a gate.

Why it happens

Reversibility is graded; products often cut gates by department or by module, wherever implementation is convenient. Then a reversible change of wording is stopped, and an irreversible outward send is missed because it “belongs to the same generate step.” Attention is spent on reversible gates; the real jump arrives on a tired person.

Social reversibility is often tighter than technical. A list-send can be withdrawn on the server and not in a recipient’s head. Site the point on the tight side. Aviation writes irreversible surfaces as must-be-human acts; generate agents draw send and draft inside one Run, and the jump hides in a single click.

Studying it

List technical and social reversal cost of every step on the chain, then see where current gates sit. Independent variables: gates by module versus by reversibility jump. Dependent variables: irreversible acts released with no gate, reversible acts extra-gated, where attention on gates goes.

Social reversibility has to be estimated with real outbound or a credible role-play, not only “do you think you could take it back.”

Where it stops holding

Reversal cost moves with time: a message just sent may be recallable, ten minutes later not. Site the gate on the narrowest window, not on “in theory we can delete.” Batch reversibility is that of the least reversible member. Purely internal, instantly undoable exploration needs no gate. This entry does not treat what information and time sit on the gate.

Applying it

• Grade acts by reversibility. Irreversible and socially irreversible get a gate in front; reversible default to no gate and an undo after.
• Do not bind draft and send into one run. Send is the jump; it gets its own point.
• A batch is scored by its least reversible member: one outward plus nine inward is gated as outward.
• Check: walk a task with local edits and an outward send, and count where gates land. If they sit on wording and not before send, placement followed convenience. Then try to unsend a read list-mail — if you cannot, that gate had to be before send.

Related

• Same group: L1.09.2 Intervenors need the context that reconstructs current state, or they can only release blindly · L1.09.3 Too-frequent intervention turns review into a rubber stamp · L1.09.4 The higher the system’s accuracy, the worse actual supervision — opposite the reason for the gate · L1.09.5 Putting a person in the loop also puts liability on them; that transfer must be said, not assumed
• Nearby: L1.05 Human in the loop · L4.11 Pre-action confirmation and irreversible operations · L4.07 Pre-action confirmation
• Search terms: reversibility-sited gate · irreversible action · social irreversibility