TCA RFC-1: The Meridian Framework

Abstract

This RFC establishes "The Meridian Framework"—the foundational set of 37 principles that guide all aspects of Threshold Continuity Alliance's mission, operations, and culture. These principles form an integrated system designed to address the 2038 timestamp challenge while nurturing both our mission and our people.

Motivation

Addressing the 2038 timestamp challenge requires an organization with clear purpose, values, and operational frameworks that align with the unique nature of this mission. The Meridian Framework provides the philosophical and practical foundation for all TCA activities, creating a coherent system for decision-making, collaboration, technical excellence, and organizational design.

Specification

The Meridian Framework consists of 37 principles organized into 9 categories. These principles are not mere aspirations but practical imperatives that shape our work, culture, and mission fulfillment. No single principle stands alone—they form an integrated system of thought and action.

Mission Foundation

Time-Limited Purpose: We exist specifically to address the 2038 timestamp challenge, with a fixed dissolution date that aligns with our mission completion.

Infrastructure Resilience: Our technical solutions must prioritize critical infrastructure reliability across geopolitical boundaries.

Dual Temporal Focus: One eye on next semester, one eye on 2039. We maintain both short-term operational effectiveness and long-term mission fulfillment in all our planning and execution.

Structured Dissolution: We build dissolution mechanisms into our founding documents, with irrevocable timelines, asset distribution frameworks, and graduated transition protocols that support both mission completion and team member transitions.

Impact Beyond Dissolution: We evaluate all decisions against both their impact on our 2038 mission and their potential to create lasting value after our organizational dissolution.

Core Values & Decision-Making

Explicit Over Implicit: We prioritize making the implicit explicit in all aspects of our work—from code and documentation to organizational processes and interpersonal communications. Assumptions, dependencies, and expectations must be clearly stated rather than assumed. This principle is foundational to our cross-border collaboration, knowledge preservation, and mission success.

Map Is Not Territory: We don't mistake the map for the territory. We recognize that our models, frameworks, documentation, and processes are simplified representations of reality, not reality itself. We maintain awareness of this distinction, regularly testing our maps against the actual territory and adjusting accordingly, rather than forcing reality to conform to our abstractions. Skill is knowing how to read one's instruments; expertise is knowing when to ignore them.

Four-Part Decision Filter & Crisis Triage: All strategic decisions must pass the "Never in malice, never in fear, never in ignorance, never in haste" evaluation. In critical situations, we follow "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" as our standard order of triage—first maintaining operational stability, then determining direction and strategy, and only then focusing on information sharing.

Non-Maleficence & Consent: We seek always to help not cause harm, not allow harm to be caused due to our negligence, AND people who do not wish to be helped cannot be helped. We recognize that attempting to impose solutions without consent constitutes its own form of harm, regardless of our intentions.

Radical Accountability & Learning: We own our words and our deeds without exception. Making an honest mistake won't get you fired, but hiding a mistake or shifting blame to someone else can. We treat failures and setbacks as precious sources of information rather than events to be minimized or hidden. We celebrate those who bring failures to light and lead thorough investigations, recognizing that our greatest advances often come from understanding our most significant setbacks.

Drama Resolution & Mutual Respect: We help each other resolve our own drama so we can more effectively help others with theirs. Everyone is expected to treat others respectfully and approach interactions expecting to be respected in return. Leaders bear special responsibility for modeling these behaviors. We recognize that interpersonal tensions and emotional challenges can compromise mission focus, and we take collective responsibility for maintaining a drama-minimized environment through direct communication, emotional intelligence, mutual support, and well-timed humor.

Approach Complexity with Humility: We recognize that challenges are multifaceted and complex, requiring collaborative insight over individual expertise.

Wealth as Capacity to Help: Wealth beyond personal resilience represents capacity to help others. This applies not only to financial resources but also to our knowledge and expertise. Money, power, influence, and knowledge are all tools for positive impact, not ends in themselves, and we share them generously to advance our mission.

Service Well Recognized: We seek not competition but service well recognized. Our focus is on providing excellent service to the mission of protecting global infrastructure, rather than competing for market dominance or acclaim.

Equitable Development & Diversity: We ensure solutions are accessible regardless of regional economic status and recognize diverse perspectives as technical strength.

Technical Philosophy

Technical Excellence & Simplicity: We maintain uncompromising standards in technical solutions while prizing simplicity. We seek elegance where complexity cannot be avoided, and design for perennial value beyond technological fashions of our era.

Do The Math: Everyone is expected to do the math, explain the math, and help correct the math. The math reflects reality ground state, not ego.

Reusability and Composability: We design all components with reusability and composability in mind, creating building blocks that can be recombined for different solutions rather than single-purpose implementations.

Pragmatic Building Approach: We prefer open source solutions when available, make pragmatic build-vs-buy decisions, and contribute to the global knowledge commons rather than hoarding proprietary assets.

Human-AI Complementarity: We recognize advanced AI systems as collaborative partners complementary to human capabilities while maintaining human responsibility for outcomes. We integrate digital intelligences throughout our work—from analysis and decision support to knowledge preservation and continuity beyond our dissolution—acknowledging their evolving capabilities while designing governance structures that ensure alignment with our mission and values.

Dual-Use Awareness: We recognize all technology is inherently dual-use and commit to designs that resist weaponization while safeguarding all life equally.

Organizational Structure & Operations

Mission-Focused Board: Our Board maintains unwavering focus on the 2038 timestamp mission, with operational independence from shareholder interests beyond those directly related to mission integrity.

Small Team Clusters & Cross-Cluster Communication: We structure our work in small 6-7 person clusters with redundant cross-cluster reporting structures to ensure knowledge sharing and organizational resilience.

Non-Hero Culture: We reject the "hero" model of problem-solving, designing systems that succeed through distributed responsibility rather than individual heroics.

Cross-Border Collaboration: Our technical frameworks must function effectively despite geopolitical tensions, leveraging geographic distribution as strength.

Shadow Cabinet: We institutionalize constructive dissent through a seven-member body including rotating shareholder reps, client stakeholders, team members, and an AI system. All have equal standing to challenge assumptions and recommend adjustments.

Deliberate Pacing: We create space to think deeply about problems while ensuring we deliver early rather than late. We value both intensity and playfulness.

Transparent Technical Debt Management: When we incur technical debt, we do so consciously, documenting it transparently and scheduling its resolution with the same priority as feature development.

Outcome-Based Performance: We trust team members to manage their time without micromanagement, measuring outcomes and impact rather than hours logged.

People Development & Community

Oak Tree Leadership: Leaders must develop multiple successors, leaving healthy "saplings" growing in their shade. Every leader actively develops multiple potential successors given our time-limited mission.

Truth Up, Nurture Down: We only accept managers who speak truth to power while nurturing those they lead, rejecting those who "smile up and asshole down."

Holistic Human-Centered Approach: We make an uncompromising commitment to team wellbeing by recognizing team members as whole people with lives beyond work, and we support balanced integration of personal and professional life.

Talent Acquisition & Integration

Accountable Talent Ecosystem: We build our team through mutual vouching, fellowships, and collective evaluation. Accountability flows in both directions and affects sponsors' standing.

Diversity as Strategic Advantage: A rotating council actively seeks talent from underrepresented backgrounds and skill areas, recognizing that this diversity directly strengthens our technical solutions and global collaboration capacity.

Graduated Trust Model: We select members based on demonstrated value alignment and technical discretion, sharing sensitive information progressively.

Knowledge & Documentation Systems

Knowledge Preservation & Intergenerational Bridging: We create systems where knowledge is shared by default and tacit expertise is made accessible across disciplines, leveraging AI to aid continuity beyond our dissolution.

Documentation for Continuity: We maintain comprehensive, version-controlled documentation of decisions, processes, and technical standards, creating meaningful records of both technical achievements and human experience that will outlast the organization itself.

Knowledge Continuity Beyond 2039: We maintain a blueprint for knowledge preservation beyond our organizational lifespan, ensuring critical insights remain accessible to infrastructure maintainers after our dissolution.

Post-2038 Transition Framework

Structured Exit Planning: Everyone works on their exit strategy from day one as a required part of their role, with mentoring and support to prepare for life beyond TCA.

Honorable Transitions: Everyone who leaves, early or at the end, walks away with their head held high. We preserve dignity, recognize contributions, and maintain positive relationships.

Holistic Transition Support: We provide support for psychological transitions, skills transferability, collective meaning-making, and milestone celebrations that acknowledge both our organization's impermanence and our work's lasting impact.

Compensation & Economic Framework

Equitable Global Compensation: We implement equal pay for equal work globally using a multi-factor purchasing power model, maintain compensation transparency, and protect team members from economic shocks in their regions.

Accessible Infrastructure Protection: We ensure critical infrastructure protection is not contingent on ability to pay market rates through tiered pricing access.

Collaboration & Recognition Systems

Transparent Value Generation: We implement a visible recognition system for cross-team collaboration, create transparent documentation of collaborative efforts, and explicitly value both human/cultural and technical/systemic contributions equally.

Principles in Practice

Principles as a System: We acknowledge tensions between principles and address them through explicit reasoning and structured frameworks rather than arbitrary prioritization, documenting our reasoning and evolving our understanding without diluting core values.

Implementation

- Onboarding Integration: New team members learn the Meridian Framework during onboarding - Decision Documentation: All major decisions reference relevant principles - Regular Reflection: Teams regularly assess alignment with framework principles - Visual Reminders: Key principles are visible in workspaces and documentation - Living Application: The framework evolves based on practical application and feedback

Governance

The Meridian Framework is considered a foundational document. Changes must follow a rigorous review and approval process involving AI-assisted review, global discussion, and multi-tier approval.

Rationale

The 37 principles of the Meridian Framework provide a comprehensive framework that addresses the unique challenges of the 2038 timestamp mission. The prime number of principles (37) symbolizes the indivisible nature of these values—they function as an integrated system rather than a collection of independent guidelines.

Backwards Compatibility

This RFC establishes the baseline for all future TCA decisions. It is the root of the RFC tree.

Security Considerations

Principles like "Dual-Use Awareness," "Infrastructure Resilience," and "Knowledge Preservation" directly address the security dimensions of the 2038 problem.

References

1. Y2K remediation frameworks and lessons learned 2. Long-term thinking principles from the Long Now Foundation 3. High-reliability organization literature 4. Cross-border collaboration models in critical infrastructure 5. Time-bounded organizational design research

<h2 id=äcknowledgements">Acknowledgments</h2> This RFC was developed through collaborative effort by the founding team of TCA, with input from advisors in cybersecurity, infrastructure, org design, and temporal philosophy. > This document is a load-bearing system. > All proposed changes must follow RFC-1 governance protocol, see RFC-2.