alexflint comments on Debate tools: an experience report - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Morendil 05 February 2010 02:47PM

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Comment author: alexflint 08 February 2010 12:11:12PM * 0 points [-]

I would love to see this turn into a software development project. I would be happy to participate, though I won't have much time any time soon.

Some thoughts

Sentences are powerful because we are hard-wired to use language, so if we can leverage this then all the better. It sounds like TakeOnIt is going down this path (though I haven't looked at that project).
Re crunching numbers: Ensuring the argument is always crunchable will mean the software will have to place strong restrictions on the structure and relations at all points during the argument's construction. This may hinder usability severely, so I would be in favour of a less rigid system at the cost of perhaps not being able to compute anything automatically.
User interface may prove to be the central problem. The goal here is essentially to increase the efficiency of collaborative argument, and the efficiency of the user interface may well be the bottleneck. Rather than a side issue I would pose this as the key problem to be solved.

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