prime directives
Fundamental guiding orders
Prime directives are fundamental rules or principles that override all other considerations.
The term comes from science fiction—most famously Star Trek's Prime Directive forbidding interference with alien civilizations.
In broader use, a prime directive is any core mandate that governs behavior absolutely: Our prime directive is customer safety.
In computing and robotics, prime directives are foundational constraints programmed to prevent harmful actions.
- mandatesAuthoritative commands or requirements
- standing ordersPermanent operational procedures
- instructionsGuidance on how to proceed
- protocolsEstablished codes of conduct
- non-interferenceAbstaining from meddling
do no harm · policies · Starfleet · Star Trek · rules · code of conduct · procedures · deontology · morality · commandments · alien civilizations · inviolable · ethics · principles · consequentialism · maxims · precepts · foundations
prime directivessuggestions
Proposed ideas or advice
guidelines · recommendations · advice · tips · hints
prime directivesafterthoughts
Late-arriving ideas
footnotes · nice-to-haves · incidentals · fine print · minutiae
prime, primes, primed, priming, primer, primers, primacy, primal, primary