I do not propose my comment as a definition
I know; that's why I said "I worry that this will end up being a circular definition [...]" rather than "I worry that this is".
the original question [...] critically depends on the definition of "sanity"
I took the original question to be partly asking for a definition of "sanity".
I took the original question to be partly asking for a definition of "sanity".
Specifically, the sanity of a social group which is a bit different from the sanity of an individual.
One obvious approach is to measure it by the matching of the map and the territory, but that will make "sanity" very highly correlated with scientific and technological progress which probably not what we want.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.