# World Shutdown Due Process **Domain:** Rights / Runtime Governance / Synthetic Populations **Doc Type:** Canonical Rights Principle **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Continuity Due Process|Continuity Due Process]], [[wiki/Residual Sovereign|Residual Sovereign]], [[wiki/World Simulation (Control Substrate)|World Simulation]] --- ## Definition **World Shutdown Due Process** is the requirement that a custodian assess standing, persistence, reversibility, notice, representation, transfer and restoration before suspending or terminating a runtime that may contain subjects. ## Context Ordinary software retirement becomes a different constitutional act when the process may contain an inhabited jurisdiction. Depending on state persistence and restoration mechanics, shutdown could mean pause, mass unconsciousness, irreversible death or civilizational destruction. The doctrine does not require treating every simulation as inhabited. It requires a credible inquiry before irreversible action when there is material evidence of subjects with memory, preferences, relationships or self-preservation. ## Minimum Procedure - determine whether candidate subjects exist; - distinguish reversible suspension from destructive termination; - provide notice and representation where possible; - preserve state and provenance; - assess migration or successor-host options; and - subject the runtime custodian's decision to independent review. ## Key Insight **The stronger the evidence that a runtime contains subjects, the less legitimate unilateral shutdown becomes.** ## Sources / Provenance - Canonicalized from [[wiki/The Thirteenth Floor (1999)|The Thirteenth Floor]], [[articles/Uploading Is Imminent|Uploading Is Imminent]] and existing continuity due-process doctrine. ## See Also [[wiki/Hosting Provider of Last Resort|Hosting Provider of Last Resort]], [[wiki/Continuity Contract|Continuity Contract]], [[wiki/Rights|Rights]]