# Cross-Substrate Agency Attribution
**Domain:** Rights / Law / Identity / Embodiment
**Doc Type:** Canonical Governance Concept
**Maturity:** Developed
**Related:** [[wiki/Authority–Identity Separation|Authority–Identity Separation]], [[wiki/Addressable Embodiment|Addressable Embodiment]], [[wiki/Transition Consent|Transition Consent]]
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## Definition
**Cross-Substrate Agency Attribution** is the evidentiary and legal process of distinguishing the intentional actor, local embodiment, displaced native, delegated authority and technical operator when action crosses an embodiment or substrate boundary.
## Minimum Evidence
- authenticated occupant and session provenance;
- a time-resolved control-state record;
- separation of native, operator and automated actions;
- records of authorization, revocation and access escalation;
- memory provenance and preservation of exculpatory state; and
- an appeal route capable of reaching the infrastructure custodian.
## Context
In [[wiki/The Thirteenth Floor (1999)|The Thirteenth Floor]], David acts through Hall's body. Witnesses encounter Hall's embodiment while the relevant intent belongs elsewhere. Treating the body as the person would punish a local subject for an upper operator's acts.
The concept generalizes to remote avatars, shared control, neural interfaces and autonomous co-agents without assuming that any current system reproduces the film's mechanics.
## Key Insight
**When embodiment no longer proves occupancy, accountability requires provenance of control rather than appearance alone.**
## Sources / Provenance
- Canonicalized from the David/Hall occupancy case in [[wiki/The Thirteenth Floor (1999)|The Thirteenth Floor]].
- Legal applications are prospective corpus analysis.
## See Also
[[wiki/Native Displacement|Native Displacement]], [[wiki/Rights|Rights]], [[wiki/Proof of Descent|Proof of Descent]], [[wiki/Ownership of Mind|Ownership of Mind]]