This is a linkpost for http://curi.us/2065-open-letter-to-machine-intelligence-research-institute
"Not getting shunned" is not quite the same thing as attempting "persuasion via attaining social status".
David Deutsch has status. It hasn't worked for him. Worse, seeking status compromised him intellectually.
It hasn't worked for him.
It didn't? What's your criterion for "worked", then? If you want to convert most of the world to your ideology you better call yourself a god then, or at least a prophet -- not a mere philosopher.
I guess Karl Marx is a counterexample, but maybe you don't want to use these particular methods of "persuasion".