Top all-time · #18999
D A Green
Personal blog · emptycity.substack.compolitics
D A Green writes The Empty City, a personal blog at emptycity.substack.com about politics. Since 2023, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 6 times, most often “Introduction to the evidential presumption that computers are working correctly”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Allen Green's Substack for UK legal commentary, especially on the legal presumption that computer records are correct and its role in the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Commentary on law and policy from D A Green. Formerly the law and lore blog. Click to read The Empty City - a law and polity blog, by d. a. t. green,
Most-linked posts?
- Introduction to the evidential presumption that computers are working correctly2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-09-30
What Hacker News says?
> a belief in the reliability and credibility of IT systems I found it fascinating to learn that UK law explicitly does (but did not always) encode this presumption: https://emptycity.substack.com/p/computer-says-guilty-an-int... (This link is to the substack of David Allen Green, an excellent legal commentator in the UK.)
Comment linking /p/computer-says-guilty-an-introduction
on “A TV Show Forced Britain's Devastating Post Office Scandal into the Light”Submitted Introduction to the evidential presumption that computers are working correctly as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe system was obviously very much not working. Some of the individuals that caused this acted on negligence, some careless ass-covering, some probably maliciously for their own gain. But there are a few key points that made it essentially impossible for the accused postmasters to defend themselves against the allegations, among them as a key point the presumption that computer records are correct and must be challe…
Comment linking /p/how-the-legal-system-made-it-so-easy
on “Post Office plan to sack Horizon IT reviewer kept secret, documents reveal”Submitted A close reading of Twitter's legal letter to Meta as a story · 2 points
HN discussionA large chunk of the blame goes to the legal system as well, especially the assumption that computer records are correct, unless proven otherwise - which is a nearly impossible uphill battle for the defendants in such cases. I can recommend this article on the topic https://emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-legal-system-made-i...
Comment linking /p/how-the-legal-system-made-it-so-easy
on “Fixing Horizon bugs would have been too costly, Post Office inquiry told”Submitted A detailed look at the Sally Rooney and the Faber book withdrawal as a story · 1 points
HN discussion