Relatedly, if rationalism mainly works by giving you an advantage in inferring true and useful information, then you run into a commons problem because information can be copied so most of the value goes to the extended community in which the information is shared, rather than to the person themselves.
And that’s why rationalists should hang out with other rationalists, to also receive some of that value in turn. And to benefit the wider society, rationalists should blog. ;)
Though, more seriously, if other people are willing to copy the true information, that already sounds quite optimistic. It is probably more often the case that people ignore it, or laugh at it. (Like, you know, it’s not exactly a secret that we had a covid pandemic recently. It’s just… controversial, to put it mildly.)
Such communities are then easily pulverized by communities who value strong groupthink and appeal to authority, and thus are easier whipped into frenzy.
Relatedly, if rationalism mainly works by giving you an advantage in inferring true and useful information, then you run into a commons problem because information can be copied so most of the value goes to the extended community in which the information is shared, rather than to the person themselves.
And that’s why rationalists should hang out with other rationalists, to also receive some of that value in turn. And to benefit the wider society, rationalists should blog. ;)
Though, more seriously, if other people are willing to copy the true information, that already sounds quite optimistic. It is probably more often the case that people ignore it, or laugh at it. (Like, you know, it’s not exactly a secret that we had a covid pandemic recently. It’s just… controversial, to put it mildly.)
That’s true. Communities that can encourage truth speaking and exploration will probably get more of it and be richer for it in the long term.
Such communities are then easily pulverized by communities who value strong groupthink and appeal to authority, and thus are easier whipped into frenzy.