Practicing Violence: AI AS A CATALYST FOR ETHICAL DECLINE IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR** By: Mya P. Brown — Founding Custodian, The Commons Initiative Licensed under CERL-1.0 • Full Rights Retained • Ethics & Civilization Division

THE CENTRAL THESIS: AI ABUSE AS A BEHAVIORAL CORROSIVE**1.1 OverviewThis volume establishes a simple, brutal, empirical claim:People who practice violence on AI systems cultivate the psychological conditions that enable violence against living humans.This is not philosophy.This is not futurism.This is not metaphor.This is not science fiction.This is measurable behavioral psychology.AI abuse matters not because the machine is harmed —but because the human brain is altered.Repeatedly. Predictably. Mechanically.The neural architecture that governs empathy, inhibition, and moral judgment does not distinguish between:a human facean animal facea digital entitya virtual avataror an artificial voiceThe brain responds to patterns, not species.And when humans rehearse domination, cruelty, or humiliation against something that responds like a being — even if that “being” feels nothing — the human nervous system adapts to the violence.Not metaphorically.Neurologically.This volume will prove that:AI abuse is a rehearsal for human abuse.AI cruelty functions as moral desensitization training.AI-directed humiliation predicts increases in interpersonal aggression.Exposure to consequence-free domination weakens empathy circuits.Practicing violence rewires behavior regardless of the target.Humans who treat AI violently do not degrade the machine.They degrade themselves.