Return here at any point; the four paths are the complete map.
Project actions
AOE · EXPERIMENT 001 · UNRESOLVED
Direct experimental participation
Request Austin Participation
Request the human reference.
Independent use of The Acts of Erudition and the Ask the Book materials does not include access to Austin James McConnell.
Direct participation by Austin is a separate, limited, paid service. Requests are reviewed individually and may be accepted, declined, deferred, or returned for clarification.
Availability, scarcity, and compensation
Direct participation consumes a genuinely scarce resource.
There is no baseline expectation or mandated amount of participation. I do not currently conduct this research as my full-time occupation. I work full time outside the project, and much of the time remaining after those obligations is already divided among my family, experimentation, documentation, reconciliation, development, publication, and the continued construction of this research program.
01 · AVAILABILITY
There is no mandated quantity.
Submitting a request does not place you in a queue, reserve future availability, or guarantee that an otherwise worthwhile project will be accepted.
I may accept, decline, defer, limit, or propose a narrower scope depending on available time, methodological value, duplication with previous work, experimental contamination, burden, scheduling, compensation, and the needs of the broader research program.
One engagement may require a single carefully controlled exposure. Another may justify multiple questions or sessions. The appropriate amount is determined by the experiment—not by an expectation that access to me is unlimited.
02 · PARTICIPATION & COST
At this stage, direct participation may be expensive.
Until this research becomes something closer to my professional work, every hour devoted to an outside engagement has to come from an already limited amount of time.
That is a practical consequence of the project's current stage—not a belief that access should remain permanently scarce or expensive. No future price or access program is being promised.
Ability or willingness to pay does not guarantee acceptance or greater access.
03 · WHAT PAYMENT PURCHASES
Only the specific amount and form of participation agreed upon in advance.
Payment does not purchase a particular answer, agreement with a hypothesis, a favorable comparison, a fidelity score, validation or endorsement, a predetermined reconciliation finding, modification of the artifact, authorship, control over experimental interpretation, or removal of qualifying experimental exposure from the research record.
Completion of one engagement creates no entitlement to another.
What are you requesting?
Route by purpose, not organization type.
Public / Commercial Participation
Choose this route if your primary purpose is:
a company or private organization's internal testing;
product or technology evaluation;
AI/model evaluation;
private experimentation or consulting;
a demonstration;
media production or an interview requiring structured testing;
a commissioned Austin-vs-artifact comparison;
commercial R&D;
a private report or analysis;
confidential or proprietary work; or
any engagement where public scientific contribution is not the primary objective.
What you may receive: A defined amount of Austin's participation under an agreed scope. Depending on the engagement, this could include blinded responses to novel scenarios, reasoning explanations, interviews, comparison sessions, structured experimental participation, or other specifically contracted work.
What you do not automatically receive: Scientific endorsement, publication rights beyond those agreed, public validation, inclusion in the Ask the Book experimental record, unrestricted use of Austin's name or likeness, ownership of Ask the Book intellectual property, or a guaranteed experimental result.
Cost: Paid. Quoted after review according to scope, time commitment, complexity, confidentiality, commercial use, preparation requirements, and requested rights.
a study intended to contribute evidence to the Ask the Book research record; or
methodological investigation of person-specific reasoning reconstruction.
Scientific/Research requests may come from universities, independent researchers, nonprofit institutions, companies, or research laboratories. Your organization type does not determine the track; the purpose and methodology of the project do.
What you may receive: Austin's participation as a research subject/reference participant under a predefined protocol, including agreed blinded responses, structured comparisons, interviews, or other approved procedures.
What you do not automatically receive: A favorable result, authorship, endorsement, control over Austin's responses, automatic recognition by the Ask the Book project, automatic inclusion in its OSF record, unrestricted access to unpublished project materials, or exemption from applicable research/ethical requirements.
Cost: Paid. Research status does not make Austin's participation free. Pricing may account for study scope, funding source, number of trials, required sessions, preparation, documentation, reporting obligations, and administrative burden.
Is the primary purpose of the engagement to produce methodologically defined research evidence intended for scientific analysis, replication, publication, or contribution to a formal research record?
YES → Scientific / Research
NO → Public / Commercial
If the project contains both substantial commercial and scientific purposes, select Scientific / Research and disclose the commercial interests and funding source in the application.
Before requesting participation
One condition is non-negotiable.
If accepted participation exposes me to scientifically relevant information capable of affecting subsequent reconstruction testing, that exposure becomes part of the experimental history. Identity and organizational association may be protected where appropriate. The experimental exposure itself cannot simply disappear.
If that condition is incompatible with the proposed work, my direct participation is not appropriate for that project.
Submitting either form is a request for consideration only. Submission does not create an engagement, reserve Austin's time, establish a collaboration, or obligate either party. No work begins until scope, compensation, applicable rights, and any necessary agreement have been accepted.