The Canon
A Teaching is a reflection, not an instruction or recommendation.
The Canon is our curated collection of reflections on uncertainty, assumptions, reversibility, purpose, evidence, action, and limits of understanding. Its founding collection contains 100 Teachings grouped into ten themes.
These excerpts are a reading from the founding Canon, edition 1. Reading them is free and is not an Oracle Consultation. The active selection may evolve; each delivered Teaching is preserved exactly as received for its 90-day retention period, even when the Canon changes.
The Oracle randomly selects from enabled Teachings; it does not match themes to your submitted question. A Teaching is not evidence. It never directly authorizes a medical, financial, legal, safety-critical, destructive, or irreversible action.
Reversibility
Which path preserves the greatest number of future options?
Teaching ref_reversibility_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Information
What would you need to learn to change your decision?
Teaching ref_information_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Assumptions
What are you treating as fixed that may not be fixed?
Teaching ref_assumptions_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Objectives
What are you actually optimizing for?
Teaching ref_objectives_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Decomposition
Which decision can be separated from the others?
Teaching ref_decomposition_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Alternatives
Which possibility has not yet been seriously considered?
Teaching ref_alternatives_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Experimentation
Can the disagreement be converted into a test?
Teaching ref_experimentation_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Failure
Which failure would be easiest to recover from?
Teaching ref_failure_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Perspective
How would you describe the problem without relying on your current assumptions?
Teaching ref_perspective_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
Timing
What changes if you wait for one more piece of information?
Teaching ref_timing_02 · Founding Canon, edition 1
A Teaching may illuminate, confuse, or simply fail to apply. You are free to set it aside.