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  Benjamin Davies revised idea #2895. The revision addresses ideas #3036, #3037, and #3038.

The Open Society

The concept of an 'Open Society' is central to the political philosophy of Critical Rationalism, detailed by Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies. An open society is characterized by individualism, where personal choice and responsibility are paramount, in contrast to a closed society (e.g., tribal or collectivist) which demands the subordination of the individual to the group. It replaces the justificationist political question, "Who should rule?", with the fallibilist question: "How can we structure our institutions so that we can remove bad rulers and bad policies without violence?". In this view, democracy is not "rule by the people" (an essentialist definition) but is valued as the only known institutional mechanism for error-correction and leadership change without bloodshed.

The Open Society

The concept of an 'Open Society' is central to the political philosophy of Critical Rationalism, detailed by Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies. An open society is characterized by individualism, where personal choice and responsibility are paramount, in contrast to a closed society (e.g., tribal or collectivist) which demands the subordination of the individual to the group. The theory replaces the justificationist political question, "Who should rule?", with the fallibilist question: "How can we structure our institutions so that we can remove bad rulers and bad policies without violence?” In this view, democracy is not "rule by the people" (an essentialist definition) but is valued as the only known institutional mechanism for changing policy and leadership without violence.

  Benjamin Davies revised idea #2826. The revision addresses ideas #3034 and #3035.

Fallibilism

This is the philosophical position that all human knowledge—every belief, theory, and observation—is conjectural, incomplete, and potentially mistaken. It holds that there is no conclusive justification and no rational certainty for any belief. Fallibilism is distinct from skepticism. Skepticism argues that because certainty is impossible, knowledge is impossible. Fallibilism agrees that certainty is impossible but denies that this invalidates knowledge. Fallibilism holds that people can and do possess real, objective knowledge, and that people can improve it through a process of error correction.

Fallibilism

This is the philosophical position that all human knowledge—every belief, theory, and observation—is conjectural, tentative, potentially incomplete, and potentially mistaken. It holds that there cannot be any conclusive justification or rational certainty for anything we might believe to be true (including observations).

Fallibilism is distinct from skepticism. Skepticism argues that because certainty is impossible, knowledge is impossible. Fallibilism agrees that certainty is impossible but denies that this invalidates knowledge. Fallibilism holds that people can and do possess real, objective knowledge, and that people can improve it through a process of error correction.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3079.

But that sucks. Maybe someone works hard and submits a bunch of ideas only to lose access to them all.

#3079·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

This functionality is pretty standard across apps. You can be removed from Discord servers, Telegram channels, etc without warning or reason at any time. People generally know and accept this. If they still put in effort, that’s on them.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3081.

But then invitees might not put as much effort into those discussions.

#3081·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

That depends on a bunch of factors, including their relationship with the discussion owner, into which Veritula has no visibility.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3072.

There could be hard cutoff: they lose access to everything, including their own ideas in that discussion.

#3072·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

But then invitees might not put as much effort into those discussions.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3079.

But that sucks. Maybe someone works hard and submits a bunch of ideas only to lose access to them all.

#3079·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

That risk could be clearly communicated in the UI.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3072.

There could be hard cutoff: they lose access to everything, including their own ideas in that discussion.

#3072·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

But that sucks. Maybe someone works hard and submits a bunch of ideas only to lose access to them all.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3074.

They could keep read-only access to the discussion but can’t add new ideas or change existing ideas.

#3074·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

Maybe you remove them because you don’t even want them to be able to see anything.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3073.

They could keep access to their own ideas but not see others’.

#3073·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

There’d probably be a bunch of edge cases with this approach. For example, others would still be able to comment on those ideas, and the comments would have to be hidden from OPs. Which begs the question of how that impacts the displayed criticism count… And so on.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3075.

Permanent access: once added, you can’t remove them.

#3075·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

If you later realize that adding someone was a mistake, you should be able to correct that mistake.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3071.

What happens if you add a user to a private discussion, they submit a bunch of ideas, and then you remove them?

#3071·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

Permanent access: once added, you can’t remove them.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3071.

What happens if you add a user to a private discussion, they submit a bunch of ideas, and then you remove them?

#3071·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

They could keep read-only access to the discussion but can’t add new ideas or change existing ideas.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3071.

What happens if you add a user to a private discussion, they submit a bunch of ideas, and then you remove them?

#3071·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

They could keep access to their own ideas but not see others’.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #3071.

What happens if you add a user to a private discussion, they submit a bunch of ideas, and then you remove them?

#3071·Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 hour ago

There could be hard cutoff: they lose access to everything, including their own ideas in that discussion.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #2728.

Feature idea: private discussions only the creator and invited people can see. This could be a paid feature; $2 per discussion, say.

#2728·Dennis HackethalOP revised 16 days ago

What happens if you add a user to a private discussion, they submit a bunch of ideas, and then you remove them?

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3067.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says one should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change while still explaining what they claim to explain. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But he doesn’t say how to figure out which is hardest to change.

A decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

Deutsch says that one should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change without impacting their ability to explain what they claim to explain. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But he doesn’t say how to figure out which is hardest to change.

A decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3065.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But he doesn’t say how to do that.

A decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says one should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change while still explaining what they claim to explain. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But he doesn’t say how to figure out which is hardest to change.

A decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3063.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But doesn’t say how to do that.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But he doesn’t say how to do that.

A decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3057.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted. But doesn’t say how to do that.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal commented on criticism #2669.

Feature idea: pay people to address criticisms (either revise an idea and check off criticisms or counter-criticize).

#2669·Dennis HackethalOP, 18 days ago

Could this feature be unified with #2811 somehow?

  Dennis Hackethal commented on criticism #2811.

Feature idea: pay people to criticize your idea.

You submit an idea with a ‘criticism bounty’ of ten bucks per criticism received, say.

The amount should be arbitrarily customizable.

There could then be a page for bounties at /bounties. And a page listing a user’s bounties at /:username/bounties.

#2811·Dennis HackethalOP revised 12 days ago

Could this feature be unified with #2669 somehow?

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #2623.

Then people could occasionally check the second tab for ideas they think they can rationally hold but actually can’t. And then they can work on addressing criticisms. A kind of ‘mental housekeeping’ to ensure they never accidentally hold on to problematic ideas.

Then people could occasionally check the second tab for ideas they think they can rationally hold but actually can’t. And then they can work on addressing criticisms. A kind of ‘mental housekeeping’ to ensure they never accidentally accept problematic ideas as true.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3055.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion at the core of his epistemology is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3053.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because it’s underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because those steps are underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #3051.

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because it’s underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

My critique of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity as a programmer. In short, his ‘hard to vary’ criterion is fatally underspecified and impossible to apply.

He says people should adopt explanations based on how hard they are to change. The hardest-to-change explanation is the best and should be adopted.

This decision-making method is a computational task. He says you haven’t understood a computational task if you can’t program it. He can’t program the steps for finding out how ‘hard to vary’ an explanation is, if only because it’s underspecified. There are too many open questions.

So by his own yardstick, he hasn’t understood his epistemology.

You will find that and many more criticisms here: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable