RFC 454545 – Human Em Dash Standard
4 days ago
- #Authorship
- #Punctuation
- #Unicode
- RFC 454545 introduces the Human Em Dash (HED), a Unicode character visually identical to the traditional em dash but encoded separately to indicate human authorship.
- The standard addresses the ambiguity caused by automated text generation systems, which frequently use em dashes with high confidence, leading to Dash Authenticity Collapse (DAC).
- The Human Em Dash is accompanied by a Human Attestation Mark (HAM), a preceding Unicode mark asserting human authorship, which should render invisibly or with negligible impact.
- Conforming implementations must verify evidence of human authorship, such as hesitation events (pauses, backspaces, cursor movements) before inserting the HED.
- Advanced implementations should monitor for adversarial patterns like consistent hesitation intervals or statistically improbable grammar perfection to detect automated systems.
- The standard suggests additional verification mechanisms like incongruous emoji usage or expressions of personal values, termed Human Cognitive Proof-of-Work (HCPoW).
- Legacy em dashes remain valid but may be interpreted as unverified in contexts where authorship authenticity is important.
- Policy considerations include potential regulation of HED usage by automated systems, possibly constituting punctuation impersonation.
- IANA is requested to establish a Human Punctuation Registry, including the HED, Human Ellipsis, and Authentic Parenthetical Aside.