The Ethics of DOI: How the Transfer of Personal Wealth into Knowledge Becomes Virtue
Abstract
This paper articulates the ethical backbone of the Tendo Economics research program. The author transferred personal financial resources, labor, and time into AI dialogue, producing DOI-registered knowledge released under CC BY 4.0. Because this output is free to all with zero barriers, the transfer becomes an act of service (奉仕). In Moralogy, service without expectation of return is highest morality. In Buddhist ethics, releasing attachment to wealth and directing it toward others accumulates merit (徳). In Shinto, permanently inscribing one's name and knowledge into a public record is an offering to the eternal. The paper argues that the specific combination — personal wealth transferred, AI as instrument, DOI as output, CC BY 4.0 as release — constitutes a complete ethical circuit. The author is not depleted by this transfer. The author accumulates virtue.