Wikipedia is for information and knowledge. This is how we can make a Wikipedia for Wisdom (applied knowledge)

Picture this: you're scrolling through your social media feed and stumble upon a heated debate about climate change. Maybe you witness people on a college campus engaged in a question-and-response session. But these exchanges often cut off after one-minute segments. Comments fly fast and furious, each more passionate than the last. Facts, opinions, and outright misinformation blend in a whirlwind of confusion. It's overwhelming, frustrating, and, most of all, unproductive. Usually, in these so-called debates, they cut off right when someone makes an astounding point, and we never hear the rebuttal. This phenomenon is rampant on YouTube, TikTok, and every social media site.


The scene is all too common in today's online spaces, underscoring the pressing need for a new approach to public discourse. Or perhaps we should consider leveraging an existing approach? Enter the Idea Stock Exchange, a platform inspired by Wikipedia's community and knowledge-sharing spirit but designed to cut through the noise of contemporary debates and facilitate meaningful, evidence-based discussions. So, it's akin to Wikipedia, but instead of being a repository for knowledge, it serves as a guide for decisions. It's about applying knowledge wisely. Wikipedia is for knowledge; the Idea Stock Exchange is for wisdom.

While Wikipedia serves as a vast repository of information, the Idea Stock Exchange focuses on facilitating informed decision-making through structured analysis of debates, issues, and decisions.

Imagine a space where every topic has a dedicated page, similar to Wikipedia. Not just to list facts but to map out the core elements of each discussion. Like Wikipedia, we have one page for every topic, where you can link to related topics, subtopics, or more general issues, but each core idea has its own page.

This approach transforms the bewildering labyrinth of opinions into clear, navigable paths, enabling users to engage with complex issues more organized and productively. There are five ways we aim to embrace and enhance Wikipedia's strengths to improve user experiences.

The first is through community-driven contributions and constructive dialogue regarding ideas. At the Idea Stock Exchange, the community breathes life into each debate, contributing arguments supported by solid evidence. Moderation ensures these discussions remain focused, respectful, and anchored in facts, fostering an environment conducive to learning and growth.

However, it's not the "deletion" style of moderation we see elsewhere. It's about ranking, evaluating, and community moderation.

So, if you post something misguided, we don't try to remove it; we aim to explain why it may be considered misguided. We allow the community to post all the reasons to agree and disagree, and then we assign scores to each belief based on the performance of these pro-con sub-arguments. This system ensures that weaker arguments move to the bottom of the list and stronger, more substantiated arguments rise to the top.

So it's community-driven like Wikipedia, and it's largely self-healing or self-regulating, to some extent.

Naturally, there are instances of inappropriate behavior, such as name-calling, that we can flag and block certain IP addresses, just as Wikipedia does. But we aim to avoid arbitrary moderation.

We're adopting the second element of Wikipedia: comprehensive coverage and a global perspective. We aspire to cover the vast expanse of human curiosity, fostering a worldwide exchange of ideas, bridging divides, and challenging assumptions. By gathering diverse perspectives from across the globe, we aim to create a rich tapestry of knowledge and understanding.

Editing a Wikipedia page can be an insightful experience—I've edited many. On each page, you'll notice removing opinions, which is beneficial. That's because Wikipedia's purpose is to present facts.

However, there's a parallel need to organize opinions and arguments related to these facts systematically. That's where the Idea Stock Exchange comes in.

The third feature we plan to incorporate is balanced viewpoints and evidence-based analysis. We aim for fairness, considering diverse opinions with tools illuminating the strength of the evidence behind them.

Our platform utilizes sophisticated algorithms to assess the credibility and relevance of arguments, guiding users toward the most substantiated positions.

These algorithms are designed to be transparent, open, and simple. We're not relying on artificial intelligence but collective intelligence algorithms that perform basic operations like counting, multiplying, and dividing. These algorithms always show their work, ensuring humans can verify and understand their processes.

Before we delve too deeply into that subject...

The fourth aspect of our alignment with Wikipedia is promoting interconnected ideas and fostering a holistic understanding. Similar to how Wikipedia encourages the exploration of related topics via hyperlinks, our platform weaves together debates, offering a network of insights. This interconnected framework allows users to understand the broader context and the relationships between various issues and arguments.

Though we could explore this feature in greater detail, the basic structure is straightforward: you post a belief at the top of the page, followed by reasons to agree and reasons to disagree. Each reason is clickable, leading users to further reasons to support or challenge it and relevant supporting and opposing evidence. Users can also view the interests of those who agree or disagree and assess objective criteria for evaluating the strength of that belief. Interests—whether of supporters or detractors—can be ranked according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This is interconnected through hyperlinks, mirroring the way Wikipedia links its content.

Lastly, as Wikipedia emphasizes reliable sources and collective wisdom, we strive for a similar ethos. We prefer to rely on collective rather than artificial intelligence. Every assertion is supported by evidence, and each source undergoes rigorous scrutiny by a community committed to accuracy and truth.

This collaborative approach ensures that discussions are based on reliable information and contributes to maintaining the integrity of the dialogue.

Now, let's dive into how we've adapted and expanded upon Wikipedia's model with four innovative features designed specifically for fostering a more robust debate environment. This adaptation tailors Wikipedia's approach to suit the needs of an argument-focused platform.

  1. ReasonRank Scoring Systems for Argument Strength At the heart of our platform lies ReasonRank, an advanced scoring system that pinpoints the most logical and well-supported arguments. By analyzing elements like logical consistency, the quality of evidence, and relevance, ReasonRank equips users to quickly identify the strengths of different viewpoints.

ReasonRank evolved from Google's PageRank, the algorithm that propelled Google to become a tech giant by ranking websites in search results based on their link structure. PageRank assesses the value of a webpage by the number and quality of links pointing to it from other sites. Similarly, an article from renowned sources like the Smithsonian or The New York Times would carry more weight than one from a lesser-known blog, owing to their higher number of inbound links.

Adopting this principle, we aim to quantify the endorsement of arguments by tracking the reasons to agree or disagree with them. However, unlike PageRank's binary link structure, our method considers the subjective nature of arguments. This requires us to introduce linkage scores, evaluating how directly and significantly an argument or piece of evidence supports or undermines a conclusion.

In essence, linkage scores will measure two aspects: the degree to which an argument or evidence, if true, would necessarily strengthen the conclusion and its importance among the objective criteria for assessing a belief's validity. Influenced by user upvotes and downvotes, these scores will guide the platform in discerning the most compelling and significant arguments.

Through these mechanisms, ReasonRank aims to provide a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of debate dynamics, distinguishing itself from Google's PageRank by incorporating the complexities inherent in argumentation and evidence evaluation.

Let's look at how this framework operates with a real-world topic. Consider the conclusion that human activities are contributing to global warming. Various reasons and evidence support this belief. It can be used to argue for other findings, such as implementing a carbon tax or establishing a "cap and trade" carbon trading system.

By organizing our debate structure this way, we tap into a powerful network effect: when you bolster the argument that human activities lead to global warming—either by adding compelling evidence or refining the reasoning—the credibility and strength of related conclusions, like the necessity for a carbon tax, also rise. This interconnectedness ensures that enhancing one argument effectively amplifies the validity of all interconnected beliefs.

Imagine this scenario unfolding across countless debates and discussions within the platform. The entire ecosystem of beliefs and conclusions dynamically evolves as participants contribute new insights, refine arguments, or challenge existing ones. This creates a knowledge web where every improvement or update in one area can ripple through related topics, fostering a continuously enriching dialogue.

Elevating the debate beyond mere listing of pros and cons, the Idea Stock Exchange introduces a comprehensive impact assessment approach. This entails a deep dive into the real-world implications of various decisions, guiding users through a systematic cost-benefit analysis. This detailed examination outlines potential costs and benefits and facilitates an understanding of their likelihood and impact within specific categories, such as lives affected, freedoms altered, or economic implications.

Users can make choices grounded in thoroughly appreciating possible outcomes by engaging in this nuanced analysis. Such an approach shifts the focus from simply arguing for or against propositions to evaluating their broader consequences. It’s about brainstorming the immediate effects and the ripple effects of decisions across different aspects of society and life.

Potential costs and benefits serve as focused lenses through which debates are analyzed, making them central to agreeing or disagreeing with proposals. This process transforms a collection of data and opinions into actionable insights, channeling knowledge into wisdom. Yet, recognizing the importance of grounding these assessments in solid reasoning, the platform ensures that arguments concerning the likelihood and significance of these costs and benefits are rigorously explored. This structured inquiry into the ramifications of decisions exemplifies the Idea Stock Exchange's commitment to fostering informed, evidence-based decision-making.

Incorporating wisdom into the discourse, the Idea Stock Exchange leverages a conflict resolution framework designed to harness information for wiser decision-making. Central to this approach is a shift from rigidly held positions to a deeper exploration of underlying interests or motivations. This nuanced understanding encourages identifying mutually beneficial solutions, embodying the wisdom of finding win-win scenarios.

The biblical story of King Solomon and the dispute over the baby is a potent illustration of this principle. Solomon wasn't advocating for harm by proposing to divide the child but by unveiling the true interests at play. This discernment allowed him to recognize the genuine mother, who preferred to see her child live with another than see it harmed, thus resolving the conflict based on underlying motivations rather than surface demands.

Applying this ancient wisdom to modern debates, the platform encourages users to delve into the motivations behind different stances. Users can engage in more substantive discussions that cut through initial disagreements by understanding what truly drives the parties involved, whether it's a specific outcome or a broader principle.

This feature of mapping interests – identifying shared and opposing motivations – fosters a deeper comprehension of the roots of conflict. It enables users to recognize commonalities that might not be apparent at first glance, paving the path toward consensus and collaborative solutions. Through a systematic approach, users assess these interests' legitimacy and significance, elevating the debate from mere contention to constructive dialogue and informed resolution.

The Idea Stock Exchange transforms Wikipedia's conventional knowledge platform into a wisdom-oriented framework by incorporating predictive markets for trend forecasting. This innovative feature allows users to wager on the future trajectory of beliefs, converting debates into collaborative efforts to forecast consensus changes. Here's how this system refines the debate process:

  1. Harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds: Users can bet on the likelihood of a belief gaining or losing consensus over time. This mechanism leverages collective intelligence to predict shifts in opinion and emerging trends.

  2. Measuring Consensus through Argument Performance: The platform gauges the strength of beliefs by evaluating the support and opposition they receive. Bets placed by users reflect their assessment of whether a belief is currently under or overvalued based on the depth of its argumentative support.

  3. Staking Reputation or Capital: Participants can invest not just their reputation but also actual money on the future score of a belief. This introduces a tangible stake in the accuracy of their predictions, encouraging thoughtful analysis and commitment.

  4. Encouraging Investment in Wisdom: Drawing a parallel to the financial markets, where investors place bets on companies' future success, the Idea Stock Exchange applies a similar logic to the marketplace of ideas. Users "invest" in beliefs, with the potential to gain or lose based on the accuracy of their predictions.

  5. Ensuring Rigorous Analysis: By allowing users to wager a belief's score's direction, the platform incentivizes thoroughly examining the arguments and evidence presented. This ensures that only the most compelling, well-substantiated beliefs rise to prominence.

  6. Establishing Belief Quality: Predictive markets are not merely a game of chance but a method to validate the quality of beliefs through the practical application of collective intelligence. This system acknowledges that the best way to assess the value of an idea is through the informed consensus of its community.

By transforming debate into a form of investment in the marketplace of ideas, the Idea Stock Exchange introduces a dynamic and engaging way to navigate public discourse. This approach elevates the quality of debate and provides a quantifiable measure of belief validity, driving the pursuit of wisdom in a modern digital agora.

In summary, the Idea Stock Exchange aims to redefine the landscape of public discourse. This innovative platform doesn't merely build upon the solid foundation established by Wikipedia; it seeks to propel public debate to unprecedented levels. By synergizing Wikipedia's ethos of collaboration with state-of-the-art tools tailored for structured discussion and insightful analysis, our goal is to foster a domain where clarity prevails over confusion and conversations are anchored in evidence and empathy. Understanding the motivations behind differing viewpoints is crucial, akin to the principles of conflict resolution.

We invite you to join us on this ambitious journey toward a future marked by greater information literacy, heightened engagement, and enhanced collective understanding. Together, we can redefine how society navigates and resolves the intricate challenges of our era, one meticulously reasoned argument at a time.

Problem - The 'Manipulation Industrial Complex' in Politics

Major political parties, notably Republicans and Democrats, are central to the 'Manipulation Industrial Complex.' These institutions capitalize on one-sided arguments to sway public opinion and control narratives. Ignoring counterarguments, it crafts a 'mind-virus,' distorting understanding and intensifying societal rifts. While overlooking balanced evidence and viewpoints, the use of persuasive essays and propaganda clearly manifests this problem.


Fueled by such tactics, Echo chambers aren't just agreement zones but catalysts of societal discord. These unchallenged ideologies become rigid, resistant to scrutiny, misleading citizens, and endangering democratic principles.

Solution - Establishing Institutions for comprehensive analysis

Combatting this trend demands the creation of institutions dedicated to breaking the cycle of biased communication. These bodies will gather and organize diverse evidence and perspectives, categorizing and critically evaluating each viewpoint. Echoing the foresight of our founding fathers, who cautioned against factionalism and political parties, these platforms will promote analytical and unbiased debate in line with the ethos of Washington, Adams, and Franklin.

It's not that they were perfect; they were just the original architects of good-idea-promoting algorithms, such as the separation of powers.


Solution - Advocating Automated Conflict Resolution and Cost-Benefit Analysis

It is imperative to shift political debate from partisan objectives to automated conflict resolution and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. This involves developing forums with in-depth analysis and problem-solving tools to win for our country, not defeat the "other" side.

Conclusion: Steering Towards a Balanced Political Discourse

Political entities must commit to balanced, truthful discourse to dismantle the 'Manipulation Industrial Complex.' Addressing the spread of one-sided arguments is crucial in combatting the societal damage they cause. This transformation goes beyond political reform; it's about reviving the integrity of public debate and upholding the democratic values it should embody.

Favorite Books

  1. Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich
  2. David's Sling by Marc Stiegler
  3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court by Mark Twain
  4. Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card
  5. Enlightenment Now
  6. Rationality

Pro/Con Webpages

Enhanced Method for Scoring and Integrating Webpages into Online Debates:

Pro/Con Argumentation for Webpages:

Objective: Identify the best web pages that support or oppose each belief.

Mechanism: Users submit pro/con arguments assessing whether a webpage is pro, con, or balanced regarding a particular belief and regarding the web page's quality. These arguments will have sub-arguments addressing their verification level, lack of logical fallacies, relevance, and importance.

Logical Coherence Assessment:

Focus: Examine the content on each webpage for the presence of logical fallacies.

User Participation: As with everything else on this webpage, we will use reason rank to evaluate the relative performance of pro/con arguments to establish whether the relative performance of ideas that the content is logically sound and fallacies-free. This will involve quotations from the site and pro/con arguments that the content is or isn't a logical fallacy. These arguments will also be evaluated for logical fallacies, verification level, importance, and relevance.

Independent Verification of Claims:

Verification Process: Assess the extent to which claims on the webpage have been independently verified.

Community Input: Similar to above, users will access the level of independent verification of content from the website.

Relevance to the Belief:

Evaluation: Determine how relevant the content of a webpage is to the central belief it is associated with.

Criteria: Use specific arguments and evidence to establish the connection between the webpage content and the belief in question. A webpage may have great content. However, depending on the performance of these pro/con arguments, it may have a low linkage score to specific beliefs and high linkage or relevance scores to other beliefs. For example, a webpage publishing the results of ice-sheet measurements may have a high linkage score to a belief about global warming. This belief may have high linkage scores to other beliefs, such as a global carbon tax or carbon trading platform.

Importance to the Topic:

Assessment: Gauge the importance of the webpage’s content in the broader context of the topic.

User Engagement: Users discuss and score the significance of the web page's contributions to understanding the belief. The above relevance score answers the question: If this were true, would it necessarily strengthen that conclusion? This score indicates the degree to which a specific question, relative to other considerations, determines a conclusion's truth. Spiting in the ocean may raise the sea level. However, it is a minor contributor, so we need a separate importance score and the logically dependent score mentioned above.

Dynamic Scoring System:

Implementation: Aggregate the performance of pro/con arguments for each of the above criteria to determine individual logic, verification, relevant, and importance scores. Use these upvotes, evaluations, experts' input, and other user-chosen measures to develop overall scores for different websites.

Outcome: This score dictates whether and how prominently a webpage is listed on each belief page.

Belief Page Integration:

Structure: The front page for each belief will feature the top supporting and opposing web pages, determined by the aggregated scores from user evaluations.

Transparency: Indicates how each webpage ranks according to the community’s assessment across different criteria.

Continuous User Interaction:

Engagement: Users continuously contribute to and revise the scoring of webpages as new information or perspectives emerge.

Adaptability: The platform dynamically updates the webpage rankings to reflect current evaluations.

Comprehensive Debate Facilitation:

Purpose: Provide users with a nuanced and well-rounded understanding of different viewpoints on a belief through rigorously evaluated web pages.

Benefit: Encourages informed decision-making and a deeper comprehension of the topic.

Conclusion:

This enhanced method for evaluating and integrating webpages into online debates strongly emphasizes community-driven analysis, logical coherence, and relevance to the topic. By allowing users to actively engage in the evaluation process, the platform ensures that the web pages presented are relevant, vital, accurate, and logically sound, contributing to a more informed and balanced online debate environment.

Algorithms can be used to group similar ways of saying the same thing and verify that the webpage still says what users said it said, among other transparent tasks, with user approval.

Books, movies, and even songs that agree and disagree

 

Unifying Pro/Con Media for Informed Debate

 

The online landscape often suffers from echo chambers and fragmented information access, hindering constructive dialogue and informed opinion formation. Individuals tend to consume information through isolated channels, reinforcing existing beliefs and limiting exposure to diverse perspectives. This lack of comprehensive understanding can lead to biased viewpoints and hinder our ability to engage in meaningful discourse. To address these challenges, I propose a novel and comprehensive approach to aggregating and organizing pro/con media for various conclusions.

 

1. Aggregating Pro/Con Media:

  • Comprehensive Databases: Identify and compile the top books, movies, images (i.e., political cartoons or photojournalism), webpages, and other media that support and oppose a wide range of conclusions.
  • Centralized Platform: Create a central platform where users can access this aggregated media, offering a one-stop shop for exploring diverse viewpoints. 
  • This will help because you should know the top books, web pages, documentaries, articles, and historical proponents or opponents of an idea to be a true expert. Additionally, we need to know the consensus source of information to create tests to quiz others to determine their level of expertise. 
  • The Dunning-Kruger effect causes everyone to think they are an expert. Still, generating a list of the top pro/con books, movies, and webpages and why they are (or are not necessary) should help the crowd come to a more evidence-based assumption of their level of expertise. 

2. Facilitating Critical Analysis and Discussion:

  • Community-Driven Argumentation: Users submit pro/con/unbiased media and supporting arguments, with ratings for credibility, accuracy, verification, logical validity, and category (pro/con/neutral). Subarguments are further evaluated for along the same and additional classes. This fosters a data-driven approach to critical analysis and debate.
  • Open Commenting System: This allows users to share their thoughts and analyses on each media piece, fostering constructive dialogue and critical thinking.
  • Moderation and Fact-Checking: Implement robust crowd-sourced moderation and fact-checking mechanisms to ensure the platform remains a safe and reliable source of information.

3. Empowering Users to Engage with Diverse Perspectives:

  • Personalized Recommendations: Using algorithms to recommend media items that align with individual users' interests and using conflict resolution and cost-benefit analysis techniques to reward users who challenge their existing biases.
  • Counter-Argument Exploration: Highlight pro/con viewpoints with each media piece, helping users see supporting and opposing perspectives about the media in context. This will help them explore pro/con subarguments for the top-performing views they initially rejected. 

4. Building a Knowledge Base for Informed Decision-Making:

  • Topic-Specific Archives: Organize the aggregated media into comprehensive archives for each belief, allowing users to delve deep and trace all the assumptions for each argument. 
  • Data-Driven Insights: Use data analysis tools to identify patterns and trends within the media landscape, providing valuable insights into public opinion and understanding.
  • Promoting Evidence-Based Reasoning: Encourage users to base their opinions on factual evidence and sound reasoning rather than relying on personal biases or emotions. 



Additionally, the Dunning-Kruger effect often leads to an inflated sense of expertise. 

To combat this we propose a system using pro/con media lists alongside branching pro/con arguments and evidence concerning the media's validity, accuracy, and necessity for expertise. This system offers several benefits:

1. Self-assessment:

  • Users can see all the media the community considers essential for proper understanding and see that they don't know the data or arguments presented in that media. They can see how these viewpoints do on the forum if they think the media isn't necessary for expertise. Again, if the media is sufficiently high-scoring, the arguments against their importance should have already been defeated. 
  • This facilitates a data-driven approach to self-assessment, moving beyond mere gut feeling.

2. Critical thinking:

  • Branching pro/con arguments encourages users to analyze the media and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.
  • This fosters critical thinking skills and enables users to move beyond superficial interpretations.

4. Diversifying perspectives:

  • Pro/con lists present multiple viewpoints, exposing users to diverse perspectives.
  • This broadens their understanding and facilitates a more nuanced approach to knowledge.

7. Promoting continuous learning:

  • The system promotes a constant learning culture by highlighting essential media and encouraging self-assessment.
  • This motivates users to continually expand their knowledge and expertise on a chosen topic.

Implementing pro/con media lists with branching pro/con reasons provides a valuable tool for self-assessment, critical thinking, and knowledge acquisition within the forum community. 


A comprehensive list of the top pro/con media and why their consumption is critical to understanding the issue will help calibrate people's assumed list of expertise. The very existence of this framework will automate the resolution of conflict. People will attempt to invalidate media that supports the other side. They will either succeed in discrediting the opposing media or, more likely if the media is high-scoring, see that their arguments have already been considered, in well-documented pro/con arguments, and that those arguments did not receive very many good supporting arguments and evidence, but did receive lots of high scoring opposing arguments and evidence. 



By implementing this innovative approach, we can create a platform that fosters informed and meaningful debate, promotes critical thinking and empathy, and ultimately contributes to a more informed and engaged society.