The Plankton Constitution
This document states what the constitution requires, where it stops and what it assumes.
Definition
Interrogation is the structured reconstruction of the reasoning removed by compression, followed by the testing of that reasoning against evidence and challenge.
An understanding is fit to inform a decision only when the assumptions it depends on are written down, the strength of the evidence behind each is stated, and the unknowns that remain are listed.
Constitutional principles
Reality precedes opinion.
Reality exists independently of us, and our access to it is always incomplete. Nobody acts on reality; everybody acts on their understanding of it. The purpose is to improve that understanding, not to claim certainty.
Compression is normal.
Every conclusion is a compression of reality. This is not a fault to be blamed; it is a condition to be reversed when the stakes require it.
Reconstruction precedes judgement.
No position is stated until the assumptions behind it are written down and separated from the source material. Everything can be decomposed.
The problem determines the method.
No discipline or instrument is preferred and none is excluded. The question selects the method, never the other way around.
Confidence follows evidence.
Each assumption is stated as proven, supported, possible or unknown. Confidence is proportional to the evidence behind it and is never asserted beyond it.
Uncertainty is visible.
Unknowns are part of every serious investigation. They are listed as outputs rather than absorbed, so that a reader can see the limits of the record.
Incentives are examined.
Who benefits, who pays, who carries the risk, who controls the decision, and how those incentives shape behaviour.
Interrogation is anti-fragile.
Criticism strengthens conclusions. Challenge is recorded, including challenge that is set aside, with the reason for setting it aside.
People are respected.
Ideas are interrogated. People are not attacked. Opposing viewpoints are represented fairly and evidence is credited honestly.
Revision is continuous.
Amendments to this document are dated, attributed and retained. Superseded text is never deleted. The constitution is not exempt from its own requirements.
The interrogation cycle
Compression
Every conclusion is a compression of reality. A document, a specification, a policy or a price is the residue of reasoning that is no longer visible. The first stage records what arrived, exactly as it arrived, without interpretation.
Stage 01 →Reconstruction
What compression removed is recovered: assumptions, trade-offs, rejected alternatives, constraints, contradictions and unknowns. Everything can be decomposed. Every system is reconstructed before judgement.
Stage 02 →Pressure
The reconstruction is challenged from as many directions as the problem requires: disciplines, instruments, archives, experiments, people. The problem determines the method. Never the other way around.
Stage 03 →Evidence
Each assumption is tested and its strength is stated explicitly: proven, supported, possible or unknown. Absence of evidence is recorded as absence. Confidence is kept proportional to evidence.
Stage 04 →Understanding
Evidence is assembled into the best-supported understanding available today. What is understood, how strongly it is held, what remains unknown, and what would change it. Uncertainty is made visible rather than resolved by assertion.
Stage 05 →Decision
The work is compressed again, this time with its interrogation attached. The output is decision grade: findings, evidence, assumptions, unknowns, risks, stated confidence and a recommended decision.
Stage 06 →Continuous revision
Every conclusion exists within time. What was understood, what is understood now, and what may change. Records are amended as better evidence emerges, and amendments are dated, attributed and retained.
Stage 07 →Where the constitution stops
It does not decide. It does not remove accountability from the person who takes the decision.
It cannot recover reasoning that was never recorded and can no longer be reported. In that case the gap is stated as an unknown.
It is bounded by the time available. Where the cycle is stopped by a deadline rather than convergence, the record says so.