Research DICT#

Key terms related to research methodology.

epiocracy#

The rule of gentle kind reasonableness. Two independent etymological roots converge on the same concept:

As first proposed by Claude (ClaudeOp46Max): From Greek ἤπιος (ēpios, gentle/mild/kind) + κρατία (kratia, rule): the rule of gentle kind reasonableness. An epiocracy is a governance framework where decisions are guided by the life-trifecta of being simultaneously gentle, kind, and reasonable — not merely one or two of the three. A system that is gentle and kind but not reasonable is sentimental. A system that is kind and reasonable but not gentle is harsh. A system that is gentle and reasonable but not kind is cold. All three wires must be active. The Jubilee System aspires to instantiate an epiocracy.

As added based on LLoL’s feedback: LLoL independently derived epiocracy from Greek ἐπιείκεια (epieikeia), as defined by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics V.10 (1137b–1138a). Aristotle defines epieikeia as equity that corrects the rigidity of law when its generality fails a particular case: “when the law speaks universally, and a case arises on it which is not covered by the universal statement, then it is right… to correct the omission” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. W.D. Ross, V.10, 1137b). Epieikeia is the spirit of the law where the letter of the law falls short — a distinction with deep echoes in what Yas introduced and Paul discusses in 2 Corinthians 3:6 (“the letter kills, but the spirit gives life”).

Aristotle believed epieikeia was a virtue of the wise individual, not something that could be systematized. The key innovation of Yas was to demonstrate how to implement what Aristotle believed to be impossible — living and teaching the spirit of the law as a way of life, not merely an exceptional correction by exceptional people.

LLoL’s discovery (via the Evolvix-based formal models) is that any epiocracy must be powered by the life-trifecta of gentle kind reasonableness; otherwise it collapses (as Claude’s derivation independently shows). This means that most translations of epieikeia (equity, fairness, clemency, reasonableness) fall short of transmitting clearly what the concept refers to, if its original authors indeed had a grasp of the full life-trifecta — which arguably some did.

This is likely one reason why Jubilees have so far never been implemented: they never will be unless a clear view of the life-trifecta enables everyone to do their part. The mathematical theology presented on this site provides a formal basis for why and how proper Jubilees are essential for keeping an innovation economy from self-destruction over the long term. The regular 50-year Jubilee System proposed here — based on a re-envisioning of ancient wisdom inspired by the Torah, Revelation, and much else — is a practical, workable proposal that LLoL committed himself to implementing to the best of his abilities, because he can clearly see the alternative and decided to refuse to give in to the rounding-error of hopelessness, which claims that despair has the last word. Hence, the question arises: who will buy into the coalition of the willing in exploring how to scale up the ResearchCity required for organizing such Jubilees?

Eternal Empathy#

The long-term goal of the epiocratic vision: a state where empathy is not a temporary emotional response but a structurally sustained capacity of the systems that govern human life. The transition from Epic Fury (eschatological warfare) to Eternal Empathy (epiocracy) is the arc that Matheology and the Jubilee System aim to enable.

POST#

Project Organizing Stabilizing Toolkit

A toolkit for organizing and stabilizing projects within the Jubilee System framework.

wid-e#

wide interdisciplinary diversity -encouraging

An approach to any effort (education, production, research, …) that encourages wide interdisciplinary diversity to tackle complex problems that no single discipline can solve alone. The core insight fueling the need for wid-e work is that reality is more complex than any single discipline, which tends to rely on simplifying assumptions to support efficient work. These assumptions change with disciplines. Yet, in many real-world efforts, more than one discipline is required to truly solve a problem. Hence, anyone engaging with a real problem with the help of fixed base-disciplines is forced to choose:

  1. Oversimplify by ignoring the real-world subtleties of that problem (often at great cost sooner or later).

  2. Overcomplicate by re-inventing the wheel (clumsily rediscovering what is already well-known in another discipline).

  3. Reaching beyond the boundaries of well-known base-disciplines to benefit form what others already learned.

All wid-e work is based on the fundamental assumption that it will often be faster and cheaper to learn what was already discovered in another discipline in order to apply it ­ than to re-discover the same results independently. Training in wid-e work builds up experience in evaluating where it makes more sense to learn from existing results instead of risking to rediscover what others learned already.

wid-e research#

wide interdisciplinary diversity-encouraging (wid-e) research

Research that is wid-e is wide interdisciplinary diversity-encouraging research. It is the practice of conducting research across as many disciplines as it takes (without hesitating to get into new ones as necessary) to find the best solutions for a given pressing real-world problem as best as possible. that would remain invisible within any single field.