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cory doctorow
Earth:
Planets
Washing machines
Wind:
Oxygen
Poo-gas
Fire:
Nuclear fission
Nuclear fusion
“Mean Devil Woman” Louisiana Hot-Sauce
In a given sub-domain, say, Washing machines, experts agree
on sub-hierarchies, with classes for reliability, energy consump-
tion, color, size, etc.
This presumes that there is a “correct” way of categorizing
ideas, and that reasonable people, given enough time and incen-
tive, can agree on the proper means for building a hierarchy.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Any hierarchy of ideas
necessarily implies the importance of some axes over others. A
manufacturer of small, environmentally conscious washing ma-
chines would draw a hierarchy that looks like this:
Energy consumption:
Water consumption:
Size:
Capacity:
Reliability
While a manufacturer of glitzy, feature-laden washing ma-
chines would want something like this:
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