Knowable unknown

The Devil’s Advocate™ →Go uptown There are six types of known. The Rumsfeld three: Known knowns: Things you do know you know; Known unknowns: Things you do know you don’t know; Unknown unknowns: Things you don’t know you don’t know; And the Jolly Contrarian three: Unknown knowns: Things you don’t know you do know. Not officially known: Things you know but the general public can’t prove. Knowable unknowns: Things you don’t know, but think you do know, for the time being, because computers. In which the curmudgeonly old sod puts the world to rights. Index — Click ᐅ to expand: The Devil’s Advocate Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Knowable unknown
/ˈnəʊəbᵊl ʌnˈnəʊn/ (also “constructive known”) (n.)
Something you don’t know, and can’t know, but you believe you can as good as know as long as you have enough data and clever enough algorithms.

Such as that options will behave according to the Black-Scholes option pricing model.

the problem with knowable unknowns is that they are irritatingly time-bound, and tend to be knowable at all the times where you don’t really need to know them, but then become suddenly impenetrably unknowable just when your pants are down.

This is not from Donald Rumsfeld’s taxonomy, but the JC’s.

See also

• System redundancy
• Unknowns