almkglor comments on Parallelizing Rationality: How Should Rationalists Think in Groups? - Less Wrong
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Comments (22)
I think you may have been led astray by the terminology into thinking that "disputation arena" means, y'know, an arena for disputation, when in fact it seems to mean a technique for discussing things. Techniques like the Delphi method are intended for groups that already exist and need to do some thinking.
Is anyone claiming it is? My understanding is that these "disputation arenas" are methods a group can use to arrive at consensus when they need to do so. (Also #1: I'd think most of them are adaptable to the case where you don't particularly need a consensus as such. Also #2: a consensus can be a complicated one with probabilities and things in, and it seems to me that agreement on such a consensus would avoid many of the perils of the usual sort of groupthink.)
I prefer "disputation arena" because "group thinking" is too close to "groupthinking".
Is there a better term for "techniques for discussing things so that lots of thinking people can give their input and get a single coherent set of probabilities for what are the best possible choices for action" other than "disputation arena" or "group thinking technique"?
I do want to be precise, and "disputation arena" sounded kewl, but whatever.
I don't know of any other term with that meaning. Making one up wouldn't really be any worse than using "disputation arena", I think, because to an excellent first approximation no one knows what "disputation arena" means anyway.