TruthSift: A platform for collective rationality

摘要

TruthSift is a cloud-based platform that logically combines members' contributions into a collective intelligence. Members add statements and directed connectors to diagrams. TruthSift monitors which statements have been logically established by demonstrations for which every challenge has beenrefuted by an established refutation, and the complement: which statements have been refuted by established refutations. When members run out of rational objections the result is a converged diagramsuccinctly representing the state of knowledge about a topic, including plausible challenges and how they were refuted. Previous computer systems for collaborative intelligence did not have a qualitatively better solution for combining contributions than voting, and are subject to group think, interest group capture, and inability to follow a multi-step logical argument. They did not settle issues automatically point by point and propagate the consequences up. I review indications that many practically important statements most people believe to be firmly established will be revealed to be firmly refuted upon computer assisted scrutiny. TruthSift also supports construction of powerful probabilistic models over networks of causes, implications, tests, and necessary factors.