Workflow - Handling Ripple Effects

As modifications to the body of scientonomic knowledge are introduced, they often affect not only those elements that are explicitly mentioned in the suggested modification but also other elements. For instance, there appear to be cases where a change in the definition of a certain term may have a ripple effect on other accepted theories which use that concept. In an ideal world, a modification that suggests the acceptance of a new theory should identify all epistemic elements affected by this modification. However, since scientonomists are not omniscient, it is virtually impossible to identify all of the necessary changes to the body of scientonomic knowledge at the moment of the publication of the modification. Thus, some of these changes happen as a ripple effect following the acceptance of the respective modification (e.g. modification Sciento-2018-0005 and modification Sciento-2018-0008) and remain undocumented in the encyclopedia. This leads to inconsistencies between the actual scientonomic body of knowledge accepted by the community and how that knowledge is presented in the encyclopedia. The question is how such situations are to be handled. Specifically, should the editors be granted a permission to make the necessary adjustments for the sake of maintaining consistency, without the need for explicit review and acceptance of these additional changes? Or should any such changes go through the regular scientonomic route, i.e. should they be presented as new suggested modifications?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Paul Patton in 2019. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. There is currently no accepted answer to this question in Scientonomy.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record of the Question

Here is the complete acceptance record of this question (it includes all the instances when the question was accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by a community):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	1 September 2019	The question became accepted as a legitimate topic of scientonomic inquiry as a result of the acceptance of modification Sciento-2018-0008.	Yes

All Direct Answers

The following direct answers to the question have been suggested:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Handling Ripple Effects - Editorial House Keeping (Shaw-Barseghyan-2019)	The encyclopedia editors should be granted official housekeeping rights to handle the ripple effects. If the additional required changes are implicit in the suggested modification, the editors should create and alter encyclopedia pages to ensure that the accepted body of scientonomic knowledge is properly documented; if it is conceivable to accept the modification without accepting the ripple effect change in question, the editors should register these changes as new suggested modifications so that the community can discuss and evaluate them in an orderly fashion.	2019

If a direct answer to this question is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Direct Answers

The following theories have been accepted as direct answers to this question:

Community	Theory	Formulation	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Handling Ripple Effects - Editorial House Keeping (Shaw-Barseghyan-2019)	The encyclopedia editors should be granted official housekeeping rights to handle the ripple effects. If the additional required changes are implicit in the suggested modification, the editors should create and alter encyclopedia pages to ensure that the accepted body of scientonomic knowledge is properly documented; if it is conceivable to accept the modification without accepting the ripple effect change in question, the editors should register these changes as new suggested modifications so that the community can discuss and evaluate them in an orderly fashion.	25 February 2023

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning direct answers to this question:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Date Assessed	Verdict	Verdict Rationale
Sciento-2019-0006	Scientonomy	22 December 2019	Accept that the encyclopedia editors are to be granted official housekeeping rights to handle the ripple effects. Also accept that if the additional required changes are implicit in the suggested modification, the editors should create and alter encyclopedia pages to ensure that the accepted body of scientonomic knowledge is properly documented; if it is conceivable to accept the modification without accepting the ripple effect change in question, the editors should register these changes as new suggested modifications so that the community can discuss and evaluate them in an orderly fashion.	25 February 2023	Accepted	The decision was made during the 2023 workshop. Hakob Barseghyan emphasized that this modification does not grant permission to alter the body of scientonomic knowledge but simply to ensure that the pages of the encyclopedia reflect the actual state of scientonomic knowledge and that the scientonomic knowledge is stored in the most appropriate manner. Among other things, this is to handle the so-called ripple effect. Barseghyan mentioned that, while working on the encyclopedia with Paul Patton and Izzy Friesen, they had discovered several instances of ripple effect that resulted from our human lack of omniscience (e.g. a theory was supposed to be listed under Theories to Accept of a modification but wasn’t; a theory was actually accepted by the community but there was no record of it in the encyclopedia, etc.). Hence, according to Barseghyan, it would make sense to grant the editors the necessary right to adjust the respective pages to handle its consequences. Deivide Garcia wondered how such very small modifications can be tracked. Barseghyan responded that the changes in question are not meant to concern the body of scientonomic knowledge (thus, these are not modifications in the standard scientonomic sense), but are only to ensure that the encyclopedia reflects the current state of scientonomic knowledge and organizes that knowledge efficiently. Kye Palider highlighted the issue of transparency: how will the community be notified about such changes? Barseghyan suggested that an annual housekeeping paper is to be published in the Scientonomy journal as a collective report on changes to the encyclopedia. The modification was accepted.

Current View

At the moment, the question has no accepted answer in Scientonomy.

Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Scientonomic Workflow.

This topic is also related to the following topic(s):

• The Status of Holism and Ripple Effect