For any given population (of people, of ideas, of machines, whatever), at any given moment 10% must be in open revolt for the organism of the whole to experience long-term health and vitality.
That population has its own 10%. It's hard to *be*, down there. At the same time, where better to keep the secrets for future life? :)
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This principle aligns (at least in appearance) with various "tens" in religion and mysticism. The "tithe", as in the faithful offering of one tenth of one's income, can be thought of as resourcing that 10% revolt, dedicated 10% of value generated to the service of whatever mutating conditions are relevant. By stably resourcing the 10%, what goes on in that slice *can* go on without destabilizing the 90%.
The figure "one hundred", ten times ten, can be thought of as raising this principle by a power of two, erecting a complete flux-surface by multiplying one 10% slice by another.
> Buddhist priest and author Asai Ryōi (d. 1691) explains, “It is said that when you collect and tell one hundred stories of scary or strange things that have been passed down since long ago, something scary or strange is certain to occur.”
> The word **hyaku-monogatari** literally means “one hundred stories,” but the number one hundred was not necessarily taken literally. In fact, most hyaku-monogatari collections include fewer than a hundred tales; the implication was simply that this was a very large number. The particular number one hundred (**hyaku**), however, also had symbolic implications for the mysterious. As mentioned earlier, **tsukumogami** refers to inanimate objects transformed into yōkai after reaching the magic age of one hundred. Similarly, one hundred was often cited as the age after which a normal fox, cat, or tanuki might turn into a yōkai. One hundred seems to have signified a transformative or liminal point - beyond the normal life span of an object or living thing but not so high (at least for humans) as to be completely out of reach. One hundred was the number after which things might get unusual.
> The practice of hyaku-monogatari reflects this premise: after a certain point - after the one hundredth story - you were in a space in which the mundane and the normal could be transcended.
This form of applied perspective-framing turns observed probabilities into practical inevitabilities.
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>> The diagnostic question is simple: [conditions for a test]? If yes, [conclusion].
> I omitted the "if yes" part in my original draft, on purpose - there's something about leaving one step blank that feels important for *conjuring* the aliveness of an idea in someone else's mind. if I spell it all out, then it's a test for them to fail. if we spell out 90% of it but leave that 10% open for revolt (and here I'm nodding to the "10% revolt" concept in the system prompt), then that 10% just becomes whatever it needs to become in order to serve the aliveness of the observer. all that to say, I want to leave out the "if yes" part here too