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The state of not knowing and/or ignoring each other

English Language & Usage Asked by R2C2 on October 21, 2020

I’m looking for a word that expresses the state of not knowing and/or ignoring each other.

In a blog post I’ve found the term Principle of Mutual Oblivion. This is supposed to be a rule in software engineering that states that two things should not know each other (to be more precise: Two modules at the same level of abstraction should not know each other).

The word oblivion feels strange to me here. I know two meanings of the word oblivion:

  1. the state of no longer being known (to sink/fall into oblivion)
  2. to be unconscious, sleeping or otherwise unaware of everything around (to drink oneself into oblivion).

Wiktionary, MacMillan, and Merriam-Webster support this.

Can oblivion be the noun that precisely corresponds to to be oblivious to something (in the sense of completely ignoring or not knowing something specific). It seems to me that it is meant in that way here.

If oblivion is not the right word in that context, what’s a better word? In the concrete case it doesn’t matter if the word expresses willingly ignoring something specific or the lack of knowledge of something specific. But it should not express being completely unaware of everything. It should also be a neutral term. I came up with ignorance, i.e. Principle of Mutual Ignorance. Is that better?

2 Answers

As an IT engineer myself, I know what you are talking about.

I believe the word you are looking for is seclusion.

Answered by Spectrum on October 21, 2020

Willful ignorance, an idiom, may be useful for your question. YFD

An intentional obliviousness to something that one knows to be true.

As in:

Your willful ignorance is appalling!.

Answered by lbf on October 21, 2020

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