Functional property, real justice

Abstract

Our days are a vast, intricate, evolving dance of mutual understandings. We know roughly what to expect form each other. Knowing what to expect enables us to adapt each other. "Not" being obliged to conform to expectations -being free to test the previously untested- is likewise a great benefit. We make progress testing what has not previously been tested. We experiment. One problem with experiments is: many of them "don't work". Or, the ideas being tested turn out to be bad ideas. Thus a successful society encourages people not only yo experiment, but also to shut down experiments whose inspiration proves unsound. What kind of framework encourages experimentation without at the same time perpetuating "bad" ideas? Here is one hypothesis: in societies that sustain progress over long periods people are free to experiment at their own expense and free from having to pay for other's people bad ideas.