1.

"Transitivity" is a property in mathematics and logic. Put simply, if something is transitive it means that there's a relationship between things where when x relates to y, and y relates to z, there's the same relationship between x and z. For a more concrete example, think of size. If my car is bigger than my couch, and my couch is bigger than my hat, you know that my car is bigger than my hat.

(I am not a math major, and if there's a consensus in the comments that I'm using the wrong term here I can update the post.)

This is a neat property. Lots of things do not have it.

2.

Consider the following circumstance: Bob is traveling home one night, late enough there isn't anyone else around. Bob sees a shooting star growing unusually bright, until it resolves into a disc-shaped machine with [...]

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The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
May 27th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zKEdphnEycdCJeq8f/intransitive-trust

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Intransitive Trust” by Screwtape

LessWrong (30+ Karma)