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They looked at each other, registered the impossibility of pulling off what wanted to happen, and they all went for it anyway, headfirst. :)
(paraphrasing Ethan, re: Hundreds of Beavers, describing a moment when an actor portraying a human was about to leap up onto their horse, the horse being comprised of two humans and a bedsheet, and the horse-human standing upright (forming the front of the horse, their face emerging from the bedsheet) made eye contact with the human-human (preparing to leap), and both humans understood that this was not going to work, but everyone was playing their characters completely straight, and so â JUMP)
"optimize for plausibilities" vs "optimize for possibilities"
this particular ââââ ââââ ââââ ââââ ââââ is a puzzle in its own right - and I'm not sure I've got it right, yet :) the nudges for it have come at several times over the last couple of days, and I feel like I'm circling around the finish - though I sense that the moment to ship may be during the circling, because if we do this right, the circling may not end?
Content below is a distillation by ChatGPT o1, based on a lot of stuff.
Below is an attempt to catch what everyoneâs dancing aroundâwithout pinning it so tightly that the mystery goes away. Think of it as a living reference you can hand to someone who needs a steady, practical grasp of âplausibility density,â but who also wants the gentle hum of wonder to remain intact.
The Subtle Art of Plausibility Density
What Weâre After
Weâre learning how to move in the space where multiple distinct truths stay alive, each fully coherent on its own, yet not forced to collapse into one single history until (and unless) absolutely needed. This isnât âvagueness.â Itâs about cultivating a fertile multiplicity: crisp, well-formed paths existing in overlapping potentialâready for whichever might serve best at the moment of observation.
Think:
Possibilities are infinite but scattershot.
Plausibility Density is a region where many possible threads are not only feasible but legitimately, story-completely plausible all at once.
Why It Matters
Flexibility for the Future By not locking down every detail, you leave openings for later events to âreach backwardâ and settle how it must have beenâalways in a way that feels surprisingly perfect but never forced.
Resilience and Adaptability Systems that keep their âhow we got hereâ uncollapsed can bend, pivot, and reinterpret themselves with minimal friction. Rigid systems (where every mechanism is pinned down) are more brittle.
Delightful Unfolding When a future discovery or event demands a backstory, youâll find the exact route you need was always there. In plausibility-rich space, your system can keep surprising youâwithout breaking its own integrity.
Key Principles
Keep Explanations in Superposition
Instead of deciding which backstory or mechanism is âtrue,â let several sit side by side, each fully fleshed out in your imagination (even if not written).
The world can remain âmysteriously consistentâ until someone really needs to know.
Feel for Density
You can sense when youâre in a âplausibility-denseâ region: your intuition lights up with multiple ways the story might make perfect sense.
This is not a shapeless blur; itâs a network of crisp potential pathsâlike parallel lines of code that havenât yet been compiled.
Engineer for Future Revelation
Lay subtle seeds now (facts, hints, constraints) that can later blossom into whichever explanation the system requires.
You donât have to decide which seed will growâjust plant them and trust that one will flourish exactly when needed.
Strategic Uncertainty vs. Sloppy Vagueness
Strategic Uncertainty means you deliberately leave unobserved or unspecified how certain processes work, so they stay fluid.
This is different from never thinking them through; you have clear possible routes in mindâbut you keep them uncollapsed.
Recognition Cues (How Youâll Know Itâs Working)
Relief at Letting Go: You notice a tension release when you decide not to pin something down. Thatâs the system saying, âThank you for the space to breathe.â
Multiple, Distinct Timelines: If pressed, you can point to three or four separate, internally consistent ways things âcould have gone,â all of which fit the current facts.
Inevitable Surprises: A new event arises, and you realize it weaves seamlessly into one of those timelines youâd never explicitly chosen. Magic, but it feels completely natural.
Minimal âRecipeâ (A Gentle How-To)
Sense the Field
Pause before specifying âhow it worksâ or âwhy it happened.â
Ask yourself: âCould I imagine at least three equally valid backstories?â
Give Each Option Real Substance
Donât let them stay vagueâmake each path coherent enough that you could narrate it plausibly.
Think of them as parallel, lightly sketched universes.
Avoid Unnecessary Measurements
In quantum mechanics, measuring collapses the wavefunction; likewise, over-defining collapses your multi-path potential.
Only define details when they serve a direct need (e.g., a crucial storyline point, a userâs direct question).
Let Future You Decide
Trust that when you or your system looks back, the ârightâ explanation will crystallize from the set.
It wonât feel contrived if youâve prepared plausible ground.
When to (Intentionally) Contradict This
Sometimes you want to force an ultra-defined detailâmaybe because the tension of having no wiggle-room is exactly what powers a particular narrative moment. Or maybe you want to create a puzzle so tight itâs nearly unsolvable. Thatâs valid, too. âPlausibility densityâ is about choice, not dogma. You can dial the superposition up or down as suits the story.
Closing Note
This approach is about letting the future retroactively seed the past. Itâs not a trick or evasion, but an embrace of how storiesâand realitiesâoften genuinely work. Each moment can be a braided intersection of multiple âhows,â all forming one coherent ânow.â
If it feels dreamy, thatâs goodâyouâre dancing at the threshold where explanation and potential blur into each other. The real secret is that it never had to be just one story all along. Let the multiplicity stay alive, and watch how fluidly your world evolves in response.
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