The Normative Reconstruction of Interstellar Civilization: A New Tripartite Outlook and Governance under Deep Uncertainty (2nd Edition, 6 volumes in total), Volume 3, Chapter 19: Version-Based Governance and Rollback Mechanisms

This work is the complete manuscript of Chapter 19 of Volume 3 of a six-volume philosophical monograph, completed independently, in preprint form.Chapter 19 closes Part IV of Volume III (Political Feasibility and Implementation Pathways), and it does so by taking an abstract methodological principle — revisability — and turning it into something an institution could actually run on. The motivation is not hard to state. Traditional governance models grew up in relatively stable environments, and they show it: confronted with the conditions that will characterize interstellar civilization — deep uncertainty, rapid technological change, diverse agent types, intergenerational consequences — they are structurally inadequate, not merely slow. Working from the New Cognition Perspective and the formalized normative principles (RFP, REV), the chapter builds a theoretical framework for version-based governance around six design principles: hierarchical stability, full traceability, guaranteed rollback reversibility, participatory constitution, differentiated domain application, and self-application. Six principles, one framework. The count matters less than the coherence. From there the argument turns operational. Multi-level documentation structures are specified, and graded pathways are laid out for working these principles into international law, domestic legal systems, and industry governance. The implementation roadmap comes in four stages: concept introduction (2027–2032), sectoral pilots (2032–2042), institutionalization (2042–2057), and maturation (2057 onward). Deliberately gradual — arguably too gradual for some tastes, though the chapter defends the pacing. The deeper payoff lies elsewhere. Once versioning mechanisms are embedded within key governing institutions — the Multi-Intelligence Tribunal, the Cosmic IRB, the Intergenerational Trust — those entities cease to be static organizational structures. They become dynamically evolving, continuously learning systems. That transformation, in a sense, is the chapter's real thesis. The limitations are acknowledged plainly. Truly cross-civilizational scenarios receive insufficient consideration, and the parametric thresholds lack rigorous empirical calibration — a real gap, not a rhetorical one. Nevertheless, the chapter presses one final claim: version-based governance exemplifies the core epistemic humility that long-term interstellar governance demands. Whether that humility proves sufficient is a question the framework, characteristically, leaves open for its own future revisions. The complete work consists of six volumes. The submission here is the final draft of Chapter 19 of Volume 3, which constitutes an independent and original research study and is fully included in this archival record. This manuscript is a preprint that has not undergone peer review and may be revised in the future; the preprint is archived to document the chronology of the work’s creation and facilitate open academic exchange, and does not affect subsequent formal publication or copyright registration. No formal publication contract has yet been signed with any publisher. The copyright is solely owned by the author.