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On Veracity and Relevance

The Negation Game offers two types of responses:

Veracity which argues whether the point is true

Relevance which argues whether the point matters

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Here’s an example:

Point: The Earth is round

Counterpoint: The Earth is flat.

Counterpoint: The speed of light is faster than 10kph.

Objection: The speed of light being faster than 10kph has nothing to do with the shape of the Earth.

And here’s that example as a tree of negations (replies) in the Negation Game:

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You can see that some of them have checks next to them. That’s because I liked them.

When you like the Relevance of a negation, you’re arguing that you think it matters in this context (whether or not you think it’s true).

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For example, “The Earth is flat.” clearly is relevant to the point “The Earth is round.”, whether or not you think it’s true.

When you like the Veracity, of a negation, you’re arguing that you think it’s true (whether or not you think it’s relevant).

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For example, “The speed of light is faster than 10kph.” is clearly true, whether or not you you think it matters in the context of the point “The Earth is round.”

When you like both you’re saying you think it’s true and it matters.

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Top level points don’t have a Relevance attribute because they don’t have a parent that they apply to.

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In either case, you can either agree that it’s true or that it matters:

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↓

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or disagree and make an argument why not:

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Writing points is a skill! What makes a good point? There are four rules of thumb:

It’s a statement

It contains one idea

If true, it makes the parent false

It ends in a period

If you’re having trouble coming up with negations, it’s often useful to ask ChatGPT:

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It’s best to first come up with negations, and only then evaluate them for whether you think they are true. You’ll find that’s a very creative generative loop, first coming up with negations, then marking the ones you agree with, then trying to come up with new negations against them.

Once you do, you’ll be able to see what you’ve marked as true and relevant.

For example, here you can see that I believe that the Earth is round, that it’s relevant whether or not it’s flat, but that I don’t think it is flat, that the speed of light is faster than 10kph, but that that doesn’t matter because the speed of light being faster than 10kph has nothing to do with the shape of the Earth.

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Now go make good points!

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What people are saying

I love this. So much more sane than a normal social media thread.

It’s fun to see what people are negating. Some points are interesting and worth discussing. Mostly thoughtful expanded arguments

Interesting! An idea marketplace vibes

I could hear my mental ram gearing up

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