Framers

The Consistency Principle The third principle for choosing constraints is perhaps the most obvious: consistency. Constraints should not be placed in direct contradiction to one another. As we envisage alternative realities, one constraint cannot go against another one; otherwise our counterfactuals would keep running into contradictions.

Framing is a process—a method that guides the human mind toward understanding, imagination, and the evaluation of options.

Einstein reframed physics by showing that time, long considered constant, is actually relative.

Mutability, minimal change, and consistency are principles to apply when iterating the constraints we place on counterfactuals.

The Principle of Mutability When conjuring up an alternative reality, people focus on aspects that they believe they can alter.

The repeated and frequent failures of causal framing have prompted many people to suggest that the whole project of causal reasoning is futile. They seemingly have David Hume on their side. The apparent flaws of causal thinking were articulated by the Scottish philosopher in the 1700s. An empiricist, Hume believed that all knowledge derives only fr

We have seen that computers cannot consider causality and cannot concoct counterfactuals. They also cannot conjure up constraints. Algorithms on their own are unable to impose boundaries and limitations.

The minimal-change principle pushes us in a particular direction when picking counterfactuals: we tend to omit rather than add. It is easier for us to imagine a world without some features of reality than to introduce ones that do not yet exist. If you are asked to imagine a color you haven’t seen before, you likely will fail.

The frames we employ affect the options we see, the decisions we make, and the results we attain. By being better at framing, we get better outcomes.

Metaphors “reflect an ability of the human mind to readily connect abstract ideas with concrete scenarios,” he wrote in an academic paper in 2010 titled “The Cognitive Niche.” Metaphors can be considered expressions of human frames. They reflect causal relationships that capture a concrete situation and can be abstracted to apply to other domains.