The repercussions of simplifying #

Moving networks into hierarchies obfuscates existing connectome #

One of the most impactful outcomes for pulling hierarchies out of network is that the actionable data can be got to faster, with fewer missteps, and replicable across a vast swath of minds.

Speed and efficiency comes at the expense of truthiness. A lack in information scent, a different paradigm or culture, and the hierarchy becomes inexplicable and confusing. That’s even before we get to just how much information is lost or set aside to get something in a hierarchy.

With a little effort you can see that there are 26 nodes and 33 connections left off the hierarchical structure, including a node that is connected in multiple ways to a selected parent node. But even in what’s included, there is missing information:

• 10 ghosted connections from the selected parent nodes, 6 of them direct connections to other selected parent nodes
• 7 lower-level connections to other selected parent nodes ghosted
• 3 nodes with collapsed connectome to force inclusion
• 1 node that is included in multiple selected parent nodes

In other words, the information density is significantly diminished. With that diminishment, our ability to apply critical thinking and triangulation diminishes. We are moving from “closing in on the quality of truth” to a perception of truth, and it becomes simple to overwrite it with the narrative of truth.