@robin

we're in an age where reality is not fixed. premodernity it was, nature was everything. given the plasticity of culture now, firstly reality is a moving target, secondly it's shaped by the multiply recursive feedback loops between many, many individuals, and thirdly the very act of trying to design ssb or its interface effects the reality we are trying to measure.

These are also assumptions about reality! There's nothing wrong with that. Since we can't get reality in itself, we have to make assumptions. Let's make them explicit - just like you've done - and let's build upon those.