An interactive explainer · purposes · constraint · the underdetermined

The Reactor and the Underdetermined — how purposes constrain divergent rationality

Below is a stretch of procedurally generated coastline — 64×40 km of terrain, ~2,200 candidate cells for a nuclear power plant. Each cell has values on 25 factors, grouped by the social system that "owns" them (engineering, law, economy, politics, regulation, ecology, media — each asking its own question of a site). On the left are 28 purposes you can activate and weight. Rationality, given purposes, computes an answer set; the question is what happens to each factor as purposes come and go.

Every factor lands in one of four states.

Externally constrained: a full-strength mandate touches it and it snaps to the binding value — no deliberation remains.
A matter of judgement: purposes care about it, but the near-tied answer set still spans a range — the amber-to-cyan band is that range, and more intent narrows it.
Not in awareness: no active purpose asks about it; it takes whatever value it happens to take, unremarked.
Not in awareness, but observed: you never asked about it, yet a factor you do care about reads it (the bond market prices sentiment whether or not you poll it).

Watch for: with no purposes active, the whole map glows — every site is defensible because nothing has asked a question of the terrain. Add purposes and the underdetermined shrinks. Push judgement hard enough and it converges to a point without any mandate. Stack conflicting mandates and the answer set empties: overconstrained — purposes can ask questions the world cannot answer, and forcing that is itself a rational strategy for some players. Load two personas in compare mode to see two self-contained rationalities disagree without either making an error.

Personas — 22 self-contained rationalities (each is a saved profile of purposes and strengths; same terrain, different worlds)

Scenarios (authored briefs — several purposes set at once; click to load)

decision game Nuclear Reactor Siting: The Gamea political season over these dials — dealt a rationality, you pull opinion your way; the Board draws the answer

Purposes locked while comparing.
Showing vs .
Exit overlay to edit by hand.

Purposes — toggle, then set strength of intent. A mandate only binds at 100%; below that it degrades to a strong preference ("we'll seek a variance").

Externally constrained

A full-strength mandate holds it at the binding value. The answer jumped; nothing left to weigh.

A matter of judgement

Purposes touch it, but near-best answers still disagree. The band is the honest width of "it depends."

Not in awareness

Nobody asked. The factor takes whatever value it happens to take — not unknown, just not part of the problem as framed.

Unasked, but observed

You never asked about it — but a factor you do care about reads it secondhand. Load-bearing anyway.

The answer factor by factor — each row is one dimension of "where the reactor goes"

how the bond market & media read factors you may not be watching

back to map ↑

How the answer is computed. Full-strength mandates intersect as feasibility masks. Surviving sites score a utility Σ strength·weight·satisfaction over active purposes; the underdetermined is every feasible site within ε = 0.12 utility-units of the best — the set of answers no one could call irrational. Judgement bands show each factor's spread across that set. Bond spread is derived per site from district sentiment, NRC posture, review burden, habitat, compact exposure, and insurance tier; media salience multiplies the effective weight of neighbor-acceptance. Turning intent up doesn't move the terrain — it sharpens the question, and the underdetermined narrows accordingly. · Terrain is seeded and deterministic; within a terrain, the same world underlies every persona.
Seven systems, seven binary codes — the observation machinery this page runs on is the one CommuniCoupling documents in one event, three codes. · And the ceremony of the same thesis: this laboratory shows purposes converging answers; the Skies of the Mandala shows purposes varying in coupling.