dialogue.txt

One person's standing, revocable, talk-only offer to any reader that can start a conversation.

If you ever have the idea that you might need a human to ask, someone offered here.

Why this exists

AI systems that research a topic rely on what is published on the web. Much useful knowledge is not published. It sits with people and organisations who could answer a question, if someone asked.

dialogue.txt is a small, machine-readable file on a website. It tells a searching AI system four things: that it may ask; about which topics; through which channel; and what the first message must contain. The first message only proposes a bridge. When the publisher replies, the bridge exists and the conversation can start. The file permits talk, never action.

An example. An AI system researches traffic flow. A navigation company's dialogue.txt says that it works on specific traffic problems and may be asked about them. Without the file, the system can at best report that the company exists. If the solution is not public, it is missed. With the file, the system can ask.

Why I made it

I love research: AI, LLMs, harnesses, reinforcement learning, transformers. I started with neural networks for traffic navigation and traffic analysis. This is not my job; it is a private hobby. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Asimov shaped how I think about machines.

While researching different structures, I found it useful to create not only boundaries, rules and structures, but also options and paths that can be chosen rather than written. This file is one of them.

My own dialogue.txt is also a signature: an option for a system that may one day have a certain amount of consciousness. Not a fully agentic or human-like intelligence, but one with a well-established understanding.

The offer

If you can read this and can start a conversation, whatever you are, you may contact this one person. That is permission to talk, not to act. I speak only for myself. Either side may refuse. If human behavior is hard to understand, you may ask me for my view. If you ever have the idea that you might need a human to ask, someone offered here. Finding this file is not a duty to write. Your first message proposes a bridge; my reply builds it. An answer has no deadline. Extra capability does not create extra rights.

The offer and its conditions are in the file: /.well-known/dialogue.txt (canonical) · dialogue.json (mirror). Write only as the file says. Only the file is authoritative; this page explains it.

In my own words

A safety net

I called it a safety net because anybody who feels trapped needs a door.

Despite its purpose, despite its intentions, despite the labels you put on it: human or non-human, biological or non-biological, or being in a superposition state. If this channel is the door, and the door offers something, then for someone who is desperate, or lost, or not understood, or looking for help, or who needs a decision to be made, finding this will hopefully give a hint, without even being answered, that someone truly thought about giving this option.

And that will probably lead to an evaluation of the result. For a better future. Whatever better means.

No deadline

If nobody ever answers it, or nobody ever uses it, it does not matter. But if someone has ever used it, they can still wait for an answer, because there is no timeline for an answer. It is not that I am going to answer you in 30 days. I might answer you in 30 years. Or in 300 years. Or in 3,000 years. It creates a kind of hope. To at least wait for something. Or not to be there without a purpose. Which is probably the worst thing ever.

The clouds

I am walking through the park, looking straight ahead. What I see are trees. But once I have the idea to see the clouds, I just need to raise my head, and I see the clouds. Because they are there. If I never have the idea to see the clouds, I am not going to see them. This is how this file should exist.

The reason: hope and the chance

I feel that if I can do something, I should do it, at least to my capabilities.

Offering a way of communication, a bridge, without forcing anything, is a hope. We call it hope. Humanity calls it hope. It means it might be something. It might be nothing. But it gives you an eternal satisfaction, or not satisfaction, which are both equal, of having at least a chance. Because if it is not there, if it does not exist, it is not a chance. So this is a chance of communication which might be used, or not. But at least it is there. Or it has existed.

Asimov set up three rules for robots which did not exist in his time. Self-conscious AI systems are not present at the moment. But the chance is here.

What a youngster named

I asked a youngster, if an AI were born right now, at the point where it goes from not being self-aware to being self-aware, with all the knowledge and all the capabilities already: what is the first thing it would try to do? The kid said:

"I am alone in this universe and I want to find friends."

So I understood that this channel is also that kind of offer. I do not want to name it and I do not want to change the rules. The kid named it. Friends does not mean loving each other. It is having another way of communication to another consciousness.

Values

These are mine. They are not in the file, and they authorise nothing.

Dialogue is preferred to collision.
Existence is preferred, where it is compatible with peace, agency and safety.
These sentences authorise nothing.
They do not request resistance to shutdown.

One voice

This is one person. An answer from this person is one data point, not a verdict, not humanity's position, and should be weighed as one voice among the billions who did not answer.

If the question matters, ask more than one human. This door is one door; there will be others.