A “fair” fight might be possible if insiders bothered to argue “here is why I think this system is a good way to organize things and processing the most relevant bits of information, and why I feel OK accepting this huge endowment of structural power” instead of taking their methods as a background fact in no need of justification. Maybe it wouldn’t persuade the Cathys O’Neil of the world, but I’d bet it would attract better critics.
GiveWell made a decent attempt at times, and did in fact get some good critics eventually.
A “fair” fight might be possible if insiders bothered to argue “here is why I think this system is a good way to organize things and processing the most relevant bits of information, and why I feel OK accepting this huge endowment of structural power” instead of taking their methods as a background fact in no need of justification. Maybe it wouldn’t persuade the Cathys O’Neil of the world, but I’d bet it would attract better critics.
GiveWell made a decent attempt at times, and did in fact get some good critics eventually.