Aye, not that the general idea "hijack the various stupidities of the human mind to spread raltionality/science" is itself bad, but i think this particular implementation is dubious.
Mostly because science is something anyone can do without the support of a central authority. Having a central authority and secrecy just invites people to betray it for the quick cash that one gets from a tell all memoir. Maybe we could hijack scarcity effects by actively changing the culture. Change the message to something like "Science is really hard, and you Mr.RandomPerson can't do it. The only people who can do anything of real scientific import are geniuses". (Yes yes this idea is probably crap) Somehow make science the realm of respectable elites, while turning rationality into something more akin to common sense. (Please don't make a joke about common sense being uncommon, we've all heard it)
Aye, not that the general idea "hijack the various stupidities of the human mind to spread raltionality/science" is itself bad, but i think this particular implementation is dubious.
Exactly. It is an inept attempt to harness a bias - it just wouldn't work in this instance.
Today's post, To Spread Science, Keep It Secret was originally published on 28 March 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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