This is a topic I have recently thought a bit about, although by no means as much as you. I largely agree with your post although I’m not quite sure that nobel laureates (excluding peace) are such a better choice than anything else. The Nobel Prize is not awarded for being a noble person, after all. You don’t have to wear a halo. Since selection effects other than intellect might play a significant role here, I wouldn’t use this group. A random sample of humankind might be better in that regard. I don’t know.
My main reason for mentioning Nobel laureates is that it jumped out to me as an obvious group of people who might be suitable, the first time the thought entered my head that the CEV initial dynamic might be selective. Insofar as I am similar to other people, this suggests to me that said group is a Schelling point, which means that it wouldn’t seem like a completely arbitrary choice of group (therefore leading to intractable disagreement about the choice).
The Nobel laureates aren’t angels. Still less so is the average human being an angel. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Your point about unwanted selection effects on the other hand is to be taken seriously.
This is a topic I have recently thought a bit about, although by no means as much as you. I largely agree with your post although I’m not quite sure that nobel laureates (excluding peace) are such a better choice than anything else. The Nobel Prize is not awarded for being a noble person, after all. You don’t have to wear a halo. Since selection effects other than intellect might play a significant role here, I wouldn’t use this group. A random sample of humankind might be better in that regard. I don’t know.
My main reason for mentioning Nobel laureates is that it jumped out to me as an obvious group of people who might be suitable, the first time the thought entered my head that the CEV initial dynamic might be selective. Insofar as I am similar to other people, this suggests to me that said group is a Schelling point, which means that it wouldn’t seem like a completely arbitrary choice of group (therefore leading to intractable disagreement about the choice).
The Nobel laureates aren’t angels. Still less so is the average human being an angel. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Your point about unwanted selection effects on the other hand is to be taken seriously.