How each model solves the same problems
Instead of “democracy versus anarchism”, compare the concrete ways collective problems get solved.
| Question | + Model | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| How are decisions made? | Participants submitted and voted on statements in Polis; researchers kept statements with cross-group agreement and converted them into training principles. | Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated. | |
| How are conflicts resolved? | Polis maps disagreement into opinion groups; statements lacking consensus across groups were excluded rather than adjudicated. | Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.Arbitration | |
| How are public goods funded? | A published public constitution, methodology and evaluation results reusable by other developers and researchers. | Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works. | |
| How is AI used? | Constitutional AI: the model applies the written principles to critique its own outputs and generate training feedback. | None; a medieval legal order. | |
| What are the main risks? | Organiser discretion in translation, unrepresentative or small samples, no ongoing accountability and voluntary uptake by the developer. | Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385 |
This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.