mediated long form dialectic synthesis with public argument mapping for scalable collective sense-making

[[ 2021-12-21 ]] #sense-making #dialectics #argument

One of the more noteworthy conversation points from the JRE podcast with Daniel Schmactenberger and Tristan Harris was when DS brought up the need for long form, mediated conversations between experts as a form of sense-making content (around 2:23:00).

He suggested that participating experts first disclose their own biases as well as state what it would take to change their mind on whichever topic is being contested (Why? Because an ethos of learning and epistemic humility are necessary cultural features for public sense-making to effectively navigate the complexity of hyperobjects)

Just imagine how informative and educational these conversations would be. It seems like Lex Fridman is heading somewhat in this direction, at least in terms of creating long form discussions (like the 5 hour podcast about the lab leak theory):

Now imagine if we have a hybrid form of podcasting where a dedicated production team, in collaboration with the experts, map their arguments into a discourse graph of some kind (perhaps like Swarmcheck). Each new discussion could contribute to the same discourse graph.

If we want to evolve our collective, public sense-making, we need to graduate from transient conversations and start constructing tangible time-independent knowledge bases that can be explored and contributed to over time. That is, we must create semantic graphs as a way to annotate and index our collective thinking.

It’s important to externalize these kinds of conversations because arguments need to be written down to properly undergo a dialectic process. As well, [[ writing is the central medium of research, learning, and critical thought ]]. Expecting to engage in deep sense-making through spoken word alone is naive. Podcasts, as they currently are, are still incredibly valuable, but more so as a means to curate what is salient (curation as a new modality of wisdom in the information age).