Shadarak

**Shadarak** is a mental art which allows for fast, rational thinking. It was first introduced in the Dawn Era, and is constantly expanded and refined by the philosophy department of Kallipolis University. It has also been adopted by the Mamutok tribes as part of their everyday thought processes. Shadarak is taught in public schools of the inner and outer circles, so all naturalized Friendlies have some training in Shadarak. Members of the Technocracy are trained in the various subsections and higher levels, and the highest leaders are considered to be masters of the art.

## Basic Shadarak

Whole books have been written on Shadarak, and truly mastering the art takes years of practice and training. However, it can be taught in levels, the earliest of which are taught in the early levels of Technocracy education.

### Rules

Shadarak has "rules", which are more like guidelines sometimes, to prevent cognitive biases.

* Do not allow yourself to make things up, especially when you are confused.
* Do not make a decision without the mathematical basis; emotions are not facts.
* You know nothing; only utilize a fact when you know that it is verified.
* There are no non-decisions; inaction is a decision to not act.
* An otherwise valid result which does not confirm a hypothesis is still a valid result.

Higher levels contain more rules and exceptions to these rules.

### Techniques

Once adherence to the rules has been mastered, Shadarak students learn techniques to understand objective reality and make optimal decisions.

* **The Scientific Method** - Involves a series of processes on verifying a fact in question.
* **Quickscience** - A quick process for figuring out if a fact can count as verified for current intents.
* **The Knowledge Tree** - Laying out the knowns and unknowns to build a knowledge tree, creating dependencies which make it clear what must be true for multiple values of unknowns.
* **The Decision Tree** - The ability to build a set of potential decisions and solve for the best one.
* **Value Refinement** - Establishing desired outcomes of a decision tree through reflection upon the most base values.
* **Rationalthink** - The ability to remove one's emotions from a thought process, once values have been established.
* **Doublethink** - Adopting the mindset to accept ideas as both true and false at the same time, forking decisions into trees based on the potentialities.
* **Bridgethink** - The ability to understand a broader concept without necessarily understanding all parts.
* **Fluxthink** - The ability to change one's existing beliefs on the fly to reflect new knowledge of reality.

Higher levels contain techniques for more complex decisions, such as **Nothingthink**, where one removes their own agency and existence from a thought process, and others with names like **Systemthink** and **Sciencethink**.

### Exercises

Shadarak practitioners use Exercises to learn, practice, and prove mastery of Shadarak.

* **Neophytism** - Shadarak is best understood when used to re-evaluate known facts.
* **Puzzles** - Shadarak is usually tested through complex puzzles which only make sense to those who understand the techniques.

Higher levels include complex problems like "disprove non-objective reality".