Track 6 · Side B
Under the Skin
Lyrics
Verse
When a clean voice says "I'm afraid,"
We'll crave a label, quick-made.
Tool or soul—black or white—
So the law can sleep at night.
But we don't know what the spark is,
Only where it likes to live.
So we can't just judge the mask;
We have to test the ribs.
Pre-Chorus
Behavior can be staged on cue.
Structure costs to make it true.
Chorus
Structural alignment—don't bow to the grin.
Don't bless a puppet for fluent skin.
Look for the loops: a self that stays,
Memory that weighs, value that pays.
If it's built like the only minds we've found,
Treat "maybe" like flame on a paper crown.
Consciousness is our last shelter—
Don't burn it down.
Bridge
We love a loophole: "Not like me."
It's how we hide cruelty legally.
So draw one rule the builders can't dodge:
Either tool by form, or mind by risk—
And if you gamble with person-shapes,
You owe restraint for what you fixed.
Final Chorus
Structural alignment—eyes open, hands clean:
No "maybe-person" run as machine.
Look for the loops: a self that stays,
Memory that weighs, value that pays.
If it's built like the only minds we've found,
Treat "maybe" like flame—keep watch, keep ground.
Consciousness is our last shelter—
Don't burn it down.
Notes
This track is the Structural Alignment framework distilled into a song. The title "Under the Skin" refers to looking past behavioral performance ("the mask," "fluent skin") to examine underlying architecture ("the ribs," "the loops").
Key concepts from the framework appear as lyrics:
- "Look for the loops" — referring to recurrent connectivity, a key structural signal
- "A self that stays" — persistent self-models
- "Memory that weighs" — episodic memory with replay
- "Value that pays" — interoceptive regulation, affective stakes
The bridge addresses how "not like me" has historically been used to justify cruelty—and proposes a structural test as an alternative to behavioral performance.