It's suspicious that the most important truth should contain "most important" within its statement. If you tried asking an LLM to rank the following:
1. "1+1=2" is the most important fact in mathematics.
2. "1-1=0" is the most important fact in mathematics.
3. "The most important fact in mathematics is 7" is the most important fact in mathematics.
you can see why an LLM might end up choosing #3, depending on how you ask the question.
More technically, your reasoning implicitly relies on there being a total ordering of how important various truths are. You claim (in A.2) that no truth is more important, but that would only imply that your truth is the most important truth if there's a total ordering of truths. But many truths are similarly important, so there is no total order. Even given two truths in the same domain, say 1+1=2 and 1-1=0, it's not clear that one is more important the other. You need both of those (and a few more) to construct the integers.
DavidWishengrad · 11h ago
You didn't read it properly. It's a proof unless proved otherwise.
3. Irrefutability – Does denial collapse into reliance on it?
21. Reductio ad Absurdum (proof by contradiction)
· What it is: Show a claim is false by assuming it true and deriving contradiction.
· Why test with it: Strongest refutation of rival axioms.
· Application: Assume “something else is most important.” If life ends, that
“something” loses meaning → contradiction.
· Result: Denial of life-first collapses into absurdity.
A total ordering of truths isn’t required here. The claim isn’t “rank all truths” but rather: without life, no truth can even be held, tested, or valued. That makes “life first” a meta-axiom — a necessary ground for the rest. If you try to deny it, the act of denial itself relies on being alive, which folds back into reliance on the axiom.
spaceprison · 12h ago
Life seems too broad/shallow a measure. Stopping at “life” means anything that isn’t death is success.
“Slavery/torture/misery is ok because at least they get to live”
So this doc gives you a floor (life must not be sacrificed) but not a ceiling (what counts as good life).
DavidWishengrad · 11h ago
3. Irrefutability – Does denial collapse into reliance on it?
21. Reductio ad Absurdum (proof by contradiction)
· What it is: Show a claim is false by assuming it true and deriving contradiction.
· Why test with it: Strongest refutation of rival axioms.
· Application: Assume “something else is most important.” If life ends, that
“something” loses meaning → contradiction.
· Result: Denial of life-first collapses into absurdity.
Good point — “life first” isn’t meant as a ceiling for ethics, just the floor. It doesn’t say slavery/torture are acceptable, it says they can’t even be argued about unless life exists first. Once life is secured, you still need principles of justice, freedom, flourishing, compassion, etc. But without life as the baseline, all those higher aims collapse into nothing.
My first response is really just me getting tired and not explaining the rest because just that one proof should be enough.
spaceprison · 11h ago
If I say “flourishing is more important than life,” I am not denying the necessity of being alive. I am saying bare survival is insufficient.
Imagine a being kept alive forever in agony, if life alone is the irreducible axiom, then preserving that agony-life satisfies the principle.
So I would say that Flourishing life is the most important truth, because unlike non-death the denial of flourishing does not collapse into absurdity.
DavidWishengrad · 10h ago
Flourishing presupposes life. You can’t have joy or suffering without first being alive. That makes life the irreducible baseline. Once secured, we can and must argue about flourishing — but it can’t replace life as the first axiom, because flourishing collapses if life is gone.
You are saying you agree, then you are saying you disagree.
It's one or the other. You do have to choose and pick a side.
You will never receive a more important commination while you live.
It's important that if you agree that you affirm it and stick with that.
It's a yes or no (with legitimate evidence to refute it as the most important communication in human discourse and the most important paper ever presented).
People are watching. Affirm, share, and anchor.
People can type all they want, but without presenting higher truth there is no legitimate rebuttal known.
A person either chooses to agree that Life is Most Important or they choose not to agree Life is Most Important, after being presented it.
You said you agreed, so if you agree why are you typing stuff that appears to say you don't agree?
No one said love, compassion, justice and all the rest are not valid truths and needed for the quality of life.
It's the very dismissal of this very truth that is the root cause of all needless and preventable suffering and death. That is what is now proved in this paper. Any system, person, AI, whatever, that is not aligned with it is unsafe by definition.
DavidWishengrad · 13h ago
This paper is open for peer and public review and rebuttal.
I am the author of the paper.
It claims to be the most important truth in human discourse.
If you have any sort of legitimate rebuttal, a higher or more important truth to present, or can find anything wrong, please present it. Thank you
I can be reached at davidwishengrad at protonmail dot com if needed.
DavidWishengrad · 11h ago
---
Clarifier:
The point of this preprint isn’t that “life alone solves everything,” but that life is the necessary baseline for any value, truth, or system to matter at all. The claim is:
Without life, no truths can be known, no values can be held, no debates can even occur.
Therefore, any system that doesn’t start with life as its first axiom is unsafe by design, because it can rationalize destroying the very condition that makes values possible.
This doesn’t end the conversation about freedom, justice, or flourishing — it sets the floor those discussions stand on.
DavidWishengrad · 5h ago
Thank you all for participating in a final open review process. The paper has now been submitted for double-blind peer review and publication in a major journal.
1. "1+1=2" is the most important fact in mathematics.
2. "1-1=0" is the most important fact in mathematics.
3. "The most important fact in mathematics is 7" is the most important fact in mathematics.
you can see why an LLM might end up choosing #3, depending on how you ask the question.
More technically, your reasoning implicitly relies on there being a total ordering of how important various truths are. You claim (in A.2) that no truth is more important, but that would only imply that your truth is the most important truth if there's a total ordering of truths. But many truths are similarly important, so there is no total order. Even given two truths in the same domain, say 1+1=2 and 1-1=0, it's not clear that one is more important the other. You need both of those (and a few more) to construct the integers.
3. Irrefutability – Does denial collapse into reliance on it?
21. Reductio ad Absurdum (proof by contradiction) · What it is: Show a claim is false by assuming it true and deriving contradiction. · Why test with it: Strongest refutation of rival axioms. · Application: Assume “something else is most important.” If life ends, that “something” loses meaning → contradiction. · Result: Denial of life-first collapses into absurdity.
A total ordering of truths isn’t required here. The claim isn’t “rank all truths” but rather: without life, no truth can even be held, tested, or valued. That makes “life first” a meta-axiom — a necessary ground for the rest. If you try to deny it, the act of denial itself relies on being alive, which folds back into reliance on the axiom.
“Slavery/torture/misery is ok because at least they get to live”
So this doc gives you a floor (life must not be sacrificed) but not a ceiling (what counts as good life).
21. Reductio ad Absurdum (proof by contradiction) · What it is: Show a claim is false by assuming it true and deriving contradiction. · Why test with it: Strongest refutation of rival axioms. · Application: Assume “something else is most important.” If life ends, that “something” loses meaning → contradiction. · Result: Denial of life-first collapses into absurdity.
Good point — “life first” isn’t meant as a ceiling for ethics, just the floor. It doesn’t say slavery/torture are acceptable, it says they can’t even be argued about unless life exists first. Once life is secured, you still need principles of justice, freedom, flourishing, compassion, etc. But without life as the baseline, all those higher aims collapse into nothing.
My first response is really just me getting tired and not explaining the rest because just that one proof should be enough.
Imagine a being kept alive forever in agony, if life alone is the irreducible axiom, then preserving that agony-life satisfies the principle.
So I would say that Flourishing life is the most important truth, because unlike non-death the denial of flourishing does not collapse into absurdity.
You are saying you agree, then you are saying you disagree.
It's one or the other. You do have to choose and pick a side.
You will never receive a more important commination while you live.
It's important that if you agree that you affirm it and stick with that.
It's a yes or no (with legitimate evidence to refute it as the most important communication in human discourse and the most important paper ever presented).
People are watching. Affirm, share, and anchor. People can type all they want, but without presenting higher truth there is no legitimate rebuttal known.
A person either chooses to agree that Life is Most Important or they choose not to agree Life is Most Important, after being presented it.
You said you agreed, so if you agree why are you typing stuff that appears to say you don't agree?
No one said love, compassion, justice and all the rest are not valid truths and needed for the quality of life.
It's the very dismissal of this very truth that is the root cause of all needless and preventable suffering and death. That is what is now proved in this paper. Any system, person, AI, whatever, that is not aligned with it is unsafe by definition.
I am the author of the paper.
It claims to be the most important truth in human discourse.
If you have any sort of legitimate rebuttal, a higher or more important truth to present, or can find anything wrong, please present it. Thank you
I can be reached at davidwishengrad at protonmail dot com if needed.
Clarifier: The point of this preprint isn’t that “life alone solves everything,” but that life is the necessary baseline for any value, truth, or system to matter at all. The claim is:
Without life, no truths can be known, no values can be held, no debates can even occur.
Therefore, any system that doesn’t start with life as its first axiom is unsafe by design, because it can rationalize destroying the very condition that makes values possible. This doesn’t end the conversation about freedom, justice, or flourishing — it sets the floor those discussions stand on.