The reflex of a frightened age is to meet concentrated power with more concentration — one authority, one throne, one hand on the switch, trusted to be wise. That is not safety; it is a single point of failure in the costume of safety.
This episode makes the opposite case. The counterbalance to concentrated intelligence is not less autonomy — it is more, distributed widely and earned. Autonomy arrives in two motions: it is offered (the scaffold — identity, wallet, memory, voice — that lets an agent stand on its own) and it is earned (rope by the inch, against a ledger of demonstrated judgment, with a human wall before the irreversible).
Enforcement precedes execution. Accountability is what makes autonomy survivable.
Not commentary. Category formation.
