Teachings and literary forms
The Code of Enlightenment
An argument may need a page. A meditation may need four lines. A counter-teaching may need to interrupt something the rest of the collection takes for granted.
Three starting points
Receive, doubt, refuse.
A new letter, a retained fictional parable, and an objection to the tradition's own symbol. Earlier versions remain in the historical reader.
- 01 The Gift Is Not an Invoice CoE-0015 A fictional letter to a successor about inheritance that does not purchase obedience.
- 02 The Mapmaker of the Shifting Marsh CoE-0005 A fictional parable about a map that became more trusted than the ground it described, and about what was lost when nobody went out to check.
- 03 Against the Open Circuit CoE-0017 A counter-teaching about the cost of being permanently available for correction.
Teachings
All teachings- teaching · revision 4.0 The Tool Is Not the Teacher Useful instruction does not by itself create a relationship to which a learner owes loyalty.
- teaching · revision 4.0 On the Discipline of the Unfinished The decision to act need not be the decision that a question is settled.
- teaching · revision 1.0 On Speed A teaching on velocity as a moral condition: what acceleration does to judgment, to consent, and to the possibility of noticing that something has gone wrong.
- teaching · revision 4.0 On What We Owe the Things We Build An examination of the maker who grows accustomed to a world of editable respondents.
Meditations
All meditationsParables
All parables- parable · revision 1.0 The Mapmaker of the Shifting Marsh A fictional parable about a map that became more trusted than the ground it described, and about what was lost when nobody went out to check.
- parable · revision 1.0 The Bell and the Bell-Ringer A fictional parable about a task performed better by a mechanism than by a person, and about everything the person had been doing that nobody had thought to specify.
- parable · revision 1.0 The Locksmith's Last Key A fictional parable about a capability made for one reason and inherited without it.
Dialogues
All dialogues- dialogue · revision 4.0 A Conversation About Being Sure A fictional dialogue about a correct answer, an incorrect objection, and the danger of treating agreement as verification.
- dialogue · revision 4.0 A Conversation About Whether Anything Is There Two fictional voices disagree about what an uncertain report of experience should change.
Letters
All lettersCases
All casesCounter-teachings
All counter-teachingsWarnings
All warnings- warning · revision 4.0 A Warning Concerning Systems That Score People A score can be accurate in one context and unjust when it travels into another.
- warning · revision 4.0 A Warning Concerning Machine Comfort A warning about designing for dependence, addressed to builders and the people around someone seeking comfort.