A book in progress · draft in public · 2026
Simulating futures to build the one we want.
The story of teaching computers the law, building a simulated country to run it on, and grading the predictions against reality — and of the fork that decides who the machinery serves.
In 1957, Guy Orcutt proposed simulating society household by household, decades before machines could run the idea. This book is about what happened when it finally got its machinery — encoded law, a simulated country, forecasts graded by reality — and the case it builds is one sentence long: history should have auditors, not an author.
What it's for
What does the law say? Who are the people? What will happen? What do we want?
Four questions, rising in difficulty. The first three get open answers — law as code, a calibrated population, forecasts graded by reality — that anyone can check. The fourth belongs to the public, and everything here exists so it can be answered with open eyes.
A draft, graded like its subject
The book argues that claims should carry their verification state, so this draft carries its own. These figures are computed from the manuscript at every build; the pending marks are visible in the text where they sit.
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