Experimentalism Against Settlement

Experimentalism is Unger's systematic alternative to the premature settlement pattern that has marked every previous technological revolution—an institutional program that embeds the capacity for continuous reconstruction into governance architecture itself. Rather than allowing first arrangements to harden into naturalized permanence, experimentalist governance treats every institutional response as provisional, requires sunset provisions forcing periodic re-evaluation, supports parallel testing of multiple models, and constructs democratic channels through which experiential knowledge informs revision. This is not vague incrementalism but specific institutional design: standing governance bodies operating at technological transformation's pace, community-level assessment processes, structured comparison of organizational experiments, international networks sharing results. The AI transition demands experimentalism with unprecedented urgency because settlement is proceeding at unprecedented speed—arrangements crystallizing in months that in previous transitions took years, with democratic deliberation operating at the old tempo while the new tempo sets the formative context by default.