# Consistent Glomarization should be feasible

[Glomarization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_response) is responding that one "can neither confirm nor deny" something. It has to be done consistently, to avoid problems [like](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bentz/humor/lawyer.html):

>$\begin{array}{ll}
\textrm{LAWYER:} & \textrm{Did you ever sleep with him in New York?}\\
\textrm{WITNESS:} & \textrm{I refuse to answer that question.}\\
\textrm{LAWYER:} & \textrm{Did you ever sleep with him in Chicago?}\\
\textrm{WITNESS:} & \textrm{I refuse to answer that question.}\\
\textrm{LAWYER:} & \textrm{Did you ever sleep with him in Miami?}\\
\textrm{WITNESS:} & \textrm{No}
\end{array}$

There's been a lot of talk on this list about honesty and [meta-honesty](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xdwbX9pFEr7Pomaxv/meta-honesty-firming-up-honesty-around-its-edge-cases). Glomarization is a minor part of this, I know, but [there is a claim that](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xdwbX9pFEr7Pomaxv/meta-honesty-firming-up-honesty-around-its-edge-cases):

>Genuinely consistent Glomarization (i.e., consistently saying "I cannot confirm or deny" whether or not there's anything to conceal) does not work in principle because there are too many counterfactual selves who might want to conceal something.

## Consistently Glomarizing with "OR"

The problem with Glomarizing in everyday life is:

$\begin{array}{ll}
\textrm{FRIEND:} & \textrm{Did you get to sleep early last night?}\\
\textrm{ME:} & \textrm{I can neither confirm nor deny...}\\
\end{array}$

So either you Glomarize very rarely (thus making it obvious when you've been up to something questionable), or you do it all the time (making you a terrible friend who refuses to share basic details of their life in a simple conversation).

A somewhat better answer would be:

$\begin{array}{ll}
\textrm{FRIEND:} & \textrm{Did you get to sleep early last night?}\\
\textrm{ME:} & \textrm{Either I did sleep early, or I don't want to tell you about what I did.}\\
\end{array}$

Now, that's still socially awkward in many situations, but you can at least do it consistently to every query, while sharing most of your life in a conversational way. Note that this is superior to "or I did something I don't want to tell you about", because if you said that, then they merely needed to find out that you hadn't slept early to conclude you were up to something dubious.

With close friends or rationalist groups, you might agree in advance that there's a "or I don't want to tell you about what I did" attached to every statement about your life, or have a short abbreviation equivalent to that.

Other alternatives could be:

$\begin{array}{ll}
\textrm{FRIEND:} & \textrm{Did you get to sleep early last night?}\\
\textrm{ME:} & \textrm{I rolled a D100 this morning; if it came up a 1, or if I did something}\\
&\textrm{I want to conceal, I may lie to questions about yesterday.}\\
&\textrm{My answer is: I did sleep early, thanks for asking.}
\end{array}$

Not the easiest and most conventional way of phrasing things, but in terms of socially sharing harmless information, it gets the job done (and is probably more honest than most people's answers to these questions).