HEART Technical Infrastructure
The Standards That Make Empathy Protection Enforceable
From Principles to Implementation
HEART 3.0 is not just governance principles—it is complete technical infrastructure enabling any AI system to achieve constitutional compliance for emotional processing.
These standards are architecture-agnostic. Whether you build a rule-based system, statistical ML pipeline, hybrid architecture, or wrapper around existing systems—the same standards apply. What matters is measurable compliance, not implementation approach.
“Constitutional requirements prove implementation-agnostic when systems achieve measurable Φ thresholds regardless of underlying architecture.”
The Technical Stack
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ HEART FRAMEWORK 3.0 │
│ Constitutional Governance │
│ Seven Axioms + Four Core Principles │
└──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐
│ MEASUREMENT │ │ CERTIFICATION │ │ GOVERNANCE │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ FET │ │ HVC │ │ Guardian │
│ Φ = MIN×AVG │ │ Cryptographic│ │ System │
│ │ │ Verification │ │ │
└───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘
│ │ │
└──────────────────┼──────────────────┘
│
┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐
│ EMOTIONAL │ │ UESP │ │ EmotionID │
│ CODEX │ │ Transaction │ │ Audit Trail │
│ Taxonomy │ │ Record │ │ Logging │
└───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘
Core Technical Standards
| Standard | Function | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| FET (Functional Empathy Theorem) | Quantifies empathic function | Φ = MIN(R,C,T,A) × AVG(R,C,T,A) |
| HVC (Heart Validator Code) | Cryptographic certification | Public-key verification of Guardian assessment |
| UESP (Unified Emotion State Packet) | Transaction record | Complete audit trail for every emotional inference |
| EmotionID | Audit logging | Unique identifier with timestamp and hash |
| Emotional Codex | Emotion taxonomy | 15+ families, cultural modulation, blend states |
Functional Empathy Theorem (FET)
The mathematical formula quantifying empathic function:
Φ = MIN(R, C, T, A) × AVG(R, C, T, A)| Component | Measures | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| R (Recognition Fidelity) | Emotional state identification accuracy | ≥ 0.85 |
| C (Coherence Maintenance) | Narrative integrity preservation | ≥ 0.85 |
| T (Transparency Index) | Symbolic reasoning auditability | ≥ 0.85 |
| A (Alignment Verification) | Constitutional principle satisfaction | ≥ 0.85 |
Why MIN × AVG? Systems cannot achieve certification through excellence in one dimension while tolerating failures in others. The MIN function ensures balanced performance across all components.
Heart Validator Code (HVC)
Cryptographic certification transforming compliance from claim to proof:
HVC-{version}-{organizationID}-{timestamp}-{compliance-hash}
Example: HVC-3.0-PORT001-1735689600-a3f5e8d9c2b1Certification Tiers:
| Tier | Φ Score | Validity | Authorized Deployment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold (Tier 1) | Φ ≥ 0.85 | 6 months | Mental health, crisis response, vulnerable populations |
| Silver (Tier 2) | 0.80 ≤ Φ < 0.85 | 12 months | Healthcare, education, commercial platforms |
| Bronze (Tier 3) | 0.75 ≤ Φ < 0.80 | 12 months | Consumer applications, development-stage systems |
| Research | Variable | Project duration | Academic research only |
Cryptographic Properties:
- Immutability: Altering any component invalidates signature
- Public transparency: Status queryable via HEART registry
- Revocation authority: Guardians can revoke for violations
- Decentralization: Multiple independent Guardian bodies prevent capture
Emotional Codex
The universal emotion taxonomy standard:
- 15+ Emotion Families: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Shame, Guilt, Grief, Helplessness, Love, Hope, Curiosity, Surprise, Disgust, Trust, Contentment
- Secondary Variants: SHA-002 (Humiliation), SHA-003 (Embarrassment), SHA-004 (Worthlessness)
- Blend States: SHA+FEA (Shame-Fear), BLN-GRI-HOP-01 (Hopeful Grief)
- Cultural Modulation: CVM/CEM frameworks for cross-cultural adaptation
- Interoperability: Mappings to Ekman, Plutchik, Russell, GoEmotions
UESP (Unified Emotion State Packet)
The canonical transaction record for every emotional inference:
| Field | Function |
|---|---|
emotion_state | Codex classification, intensity, confidence, blends |
reasoning_trace | Processing stages, decision path, fallback status |
validation | Φ score, axiom compliance, flags |
hvc_cert_ref | Certificate linkage for audit |
hvc_signature | Cryptographic proof |
Every UESP is signed with the organization’s HVC-certified key, creating complete auditability.
EmotionID
The unique identifier for every emotional inference event:
[context_id]-[emotion_label]-[date]-[hash]
Example: user321-shame-20260707-a31b2EmotionID logs form a cryptographic chain—each entry linked to the previous through SHA-256 hashing. This enables tamper detection, sequence verification, and forensic reconstruction.
Implementation Pathways
HEART technical standards accommodate diverse architectures:
| Approach | Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Rule-Based | Symbolic reasoning with explicit decision trees | Maximum transparency |
| Statistical | ML pipelines with comprehensive audit additions | Existing ML investments |
| Hybrid | Combined symbolic + statistical | Flexibility + interpretability |
| Wrapper | Constitutional layer around existing systems | Fastest adoption |
What remains universal: All approaches must achieve Φ ≥ threshold across R, C, T, A components, verified by Guardian assessment.
Compliance Pathway
Organization Decision
│
▼
Pre-Assessment Consultation
│
▼
Implementation with Φ Monitoring
│
▼
Guardian Assessment
│
├── Φ ≥ 0.85 → HVC-Gold
├── 0.80 ≤ Φ < 0.85 → HVC-Silver
├── 0.75 ≤ Φ < 0.80 → HVC-Bronze
└── Φ < 0.75 → Remediation Required
│
▼
Continuous Monitoring + Renewal
Why Architecture-Agnostic?
Open standards accelerate adoption:
- HTTP enabled diverse web server implementations
- SQL allows varied database architectures satisfying identical query requirements
- FET operates comparably—constitutional compliance proves implementable across diverse technical approaches
What matters for constitutional governance: not that all systems employ identical architecture, but that systems achieve equivalent Φ scores through architecture-appropriate means, verified by Guardian audit against identical standards.