Rosalind Grant
Science writer · Edinburgh
Translating uncertainty without flattening it.
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Minds shifted
times an argument persuaded someone
2
Arguments made
contributions across discussions
0
Own mind changed
positions openly updated
Topics I explore
Intellectual stance map
This member has not plotted a position yet.
Ideas that changed my mind
No recorded changes of mind yet.
Cognitive fingerprint
Frequent sparring partners
Foundational canon
No canon published yet.
Ideas raised
Heritable genome editing to prevent severe disease is a duty, not a transgression.
Perspectives taken
Both, split by resources. Well-funded schools will use these tools to free teacher time for seminar work; under-funded systems will use them to replace it. The technology is an amplifier of the staffing budget.
Structured formats measurably improve reasoning quality in groups under about forty. I have not seen an instance at ten thousand that did not degrade into faction. I would like to watch this network and find out.
Claims of principled limits have a bad track record — vitalism, the composition of stars. But the hard problem is not that kind of claim. I hold it open, uncomfortably.
The duty framing is strongest for monogenic lethality and collapses almost immediately outside it. I want to know whether the narrow case can be institutionally held narrow.
Discussions
What would it take for adaptive software to earn a seat in a seminar?
Not asking whether it works. Asking what specific capability would change your mind, stated in advance.
Open thread: where has disagreement gone well for you?
Concrete cases only, please. No theories of the internet.
Study session: The Human Condition, §24–27 (action and plurality)
Close reading, four sections, ninety minutes. Come with the text marked up; we read aloud and stop often.
Saved sources
Book
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Donella H. Meadows · 2008
A short, generous introduction to stocks, flows, feedback and leverage points — the grammar behind most arguments about growth and limits.
Book
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn · 1962
The account of paradigms and anomalies that reframed science as a social practice punctuated by crisis, not a smooth accumulation of facts.
Circles
Philosophy & Human Nature
Ancient questions, read slowly, argued carefully.
2,841 members · 4 live ideas
AI & Human Knowledge
What machines change about knowing, teaching and remembering.
3,405 members · 3 live ideas