5 ms·

Reminds me a bit of the 10th man idea from World War Z. Basically, if all 9 members of a council unanimously agreed on something, it was the 10th man's duty to

Reminds me a bit of the 10th man idea from World War Z. Basically, if all 9 members of a council unanimously agreed on something, it was the 10th man's duty to act as if that thing was a certainty and prepare for it. This all really plays into argumentative theory [0], which is the basic idea that human reason developed as an argumentative tool. Its main function isn't "true" or "logical" ideas, but rather persuasion and defense thereof. One major conclusion is that reason often works to reinforce existent ideals against external challenge, regardless of the merit of those ideas. [0] http://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mercier-Sperber-Why-do-humans-reason.pdf http://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/wp-content/uploads/2011...

duncancarroll 11y ago
Small correction: It was the 10th man's duty to *disagree with the other 9 and prepare for that outcome.
- ableal 11y ago
  That makes more sense. Another SF writer (name escapes me) posited a Ministry of Sabotage, in charge of making government less omnipotent ...
  - ainar-g 11y ago
    Might've been Frank Herbert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Sabotage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Sabotage
esrauch 11y ago
The 10th man in World War Z was based on an actual Israeli military office called the "devil's advocate office".
- knughit 11y ago
  Which is based on ancient Jewish judiciary rules about unanimous decisions among a Bet Din.