The logic of pre-emption is superficially compelling. If you know what someone will do — or believe you know, with sufficient confidence — acting before the harm occurs seems obviously preferable to acting after it….
Posts tagged governance
Judged by Prediction
The question this pillar addresses is specific: what happens when a system decides who you are — or what you will do — before the evidence of your life has come in? This is not…
Judged by Your Data Double
In Gattaca’s future, you are read before you act. A drop of blood at the door, a hair caught in the office chair, a smear on the lift button — each one files a report…
The Periodic Table of Programme Excuses
163 programme excuses classified by chemical behaviour. Noble gases explain nothing. Alkali metals explode when exposed to data. Actinides contaminate everything they touch.
False Consensus: The Meeting Where Everyone Agrees
False consensus is what happens when an institution has made dissent too costly to voice. Not banned, not punished explicitly — simply expensive enough in social and professional terms that people prefer to agree publicly…
The Comprehension Gap
There is a failure mode that appears in organisations of every kind and at every scale. It is not caused by bad people, or greed, or negligence, though those things may compound it. It is…
The Cluster F**k Intensity Scale
Every established discipline has a severity scale. Seismology has the Mercalli Intensity Scale. Meteorology has the Beaufort Scale. Nuclear safety has the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Each one works the same way: a…