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Show HN: Semantic atlas of 188 constitutions in 3D (30k articles, embeddings) (constitutionalmap.ai)

12 points by joaoli131 ↗ HN
I built this after noticing that existing tools for comparing constitutional law either have steep learning curves or only support keyword search. By combining Gemini embeddings with UMAP projection, you can navigate 30,828 constitutional articles from 188 countries in 3D and find conceptually related provisions even when the wording differs.

  Feedback welcome, especially from legal researchers or comparative law folks.

  Source and pipeline: github.com/joaoli13/constitutional-map-ai

4 comments

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cineticdaffodil
Constitutionalism is a leftover of the liberal worldview. Just write a perfectly formulated watertight document, read it to the people and voila perfect state of affairs. Same with laws. Just flash a citizen and he is ready for action.

But it turned out the surface layer is a very leaky abstraction. Culture makes and breaks societies and even worse by result, rationally designed synthetic culture works as well as socialism. And finally if a society drops beneath a treshold of riches, it regresses into tribal warfare universally.

The constitution can do nothing to prevent this, but try to survive into the next sunny season unaltered. How can i filter constitutions for absence of idealizattions and utopism?

cineticdaffodil
The classic extreme here is the french code civic vs the english lack of a constitution, more a build up of precedence into a constituting body of law case by case. Its idealization, universalism, utopism and ignorace of the cultural ooerating system vs prgmatism in its purest form.