The Questionnaire

The authoritative text lives in the public repository, where it is protected by cryptographic verification. This page is a reading copy.

# AllHumans — The Questionnaire (Version 1)

**Ratified 2026-07-05.** These questions are the same for every
human, forever. Under Article IV of the Constitution, the number of
testimonies (three) is permanent; under the governance process, the
*wording* of these questions is intended to be changed only rarely
and deliberately, because a fixed questionnaire is what makes the
archive a comparable, longitudinal record of humanity.

Machine-readable form with stable question IDs: `questions/v1.json`.
The stable IDs never change even if wording is later refined, so
"regret at 20" and "regret at 70" remain the same question across a
whole life and across all humans.

## Rules

- Each human may leave at most **three** testimonies in a lifetime:
  the **First Testimony**, the **Second Testimony**, and the
  **Final Testimony**.
- A testimony, once entered, is never modified. It may be withdrawn;
  the withdrawal is itself recorded (Constitution, Articles IV–V).
- Every answer is capped at **400 characters**. The cap is the
  craft: it forces distillation and keeps any record readable in
  about two minutes.
- Every answer is **optional except the name**. An unanswered
  question renders as silence, which is itself honest.
- Testimonies are spaced (see `POLICY.md`); the reflective questions
  assume a life has moved between them.

## The nine shared questions (every testimony)

1. **q_name** — My name is… *(or the name I choose to be known by)*
2. **q_place** — I am living, as of this testimony, in…
   *(as specific or as coarse as I wish — a city, a country, a
   region, or simply "on Earth")*
3. **q_smile** — What makes me smile is…
4. **q_happiest** — The happiest moment of my life so far was…
5. **q_hardest** — The hardest thing I have carried is…
6. **q_lesson** — The biggest lesson life has taught me is…
7. **q_regret** — The one thing I regret is…
8. **q_future** — I am excited about the future because…
9. **q_hope** — What I hope for the people who come after me is…

## The closing letter (every testimony)

- **q_letter** — If you have found this record, I want you to know…

## The reflective question (Second and Final only)

Second Testimony, before the closing letter:

- **q_reflect_second** — Looking back at my First Testimony, what has
  changed most in me is…

Final Testimony, before the closing letter:

- **q_reflect_final** — Looking back at my earlier testimonies, what I
  understand now that I could not have understood before is…

## Order within each testimony

**First:** q_name, q_place, q_smile, q_happiest, q_hardest, q_lesson,
q_regret, q_future, q_hope, q_letter.

**Second:** the nine shared, then q_reflect_second, then q_letter.

**Final:** the nine shared, then q_reflect_final, then q_letter.

The order descends into weight (the hardest thing, the regret) and
resurfaces into hope, always closing as a letter to whoever finds
the record.

## Notes on changes from the draft

- Voice made first-person throughout, including the reflective
  questions, so every prompt is a sentence the human completes.
- Q2 ("q_place") no longer asks for exact age — the testimony is
  already timestamped, and age plus exact location is the most
  identifying line in the record. Place is coarse by default and
  optional, to protect anyone for whom being identifiable is unsafe.
- Any answer may be marked **sealed until death** (revealed only on
  verified memorialization). Sealing is a property of an answer, not
  a separate question.

Verified and agreed by founder on July 6, 2026.