Assisted Debate

My mother is a physical therapist who specializes in gait analysis, which is a fancy way of saying, "she studies how you walk and suggests modifications to alleviate chronic pain." This is often frustrating for new patients. She gets a lot of, "I know how to walk, I've been doing it for thirty years. Just give me a massage to make the pain go away." After so many thousands of healed patients, she has the confidence, and the patience to explain why what she does works.

Debate (formal or informal) suffers from a similar problem. We as a society have been doing debate the same way for so long that it rarely occurs to us that the source of frustration is not due to "the other guy being a moron", but due to the format we use: semi-structured oral turn based blurbs. What prevents someone from simply changing the subject? From giving a flowery answer that does not in fact address the question? From answering with facts that neither party has true access to in real time? The list of problems goes on and on. And importantly: this is vehicle by which we make the worlds most important decisions.

In a few weeks I'll be coming out with software which is an attempt to improve upon this most important activity: two or more minds coming together to form understanding.

This little post is dedicated to my mom, who taught me strength when exploring new ways to help people.