This is a linkpost for http://curi.us/2065-open-letter-to-machine-intelligence-research-institute
Deutsch invented Taking Children Seriously and Autonomous Relationships. That was some decades ago. He spent years in discussion groups trying to persuade people. His status did not help at all. Where are TCS and AR today? They are still only understood by a tiny minority. If not for curi, they might be dead.
Deutsch wrote "The Fabric of Reality" and "The Beginning of Infinity". FoR was from 1997 and BoI was from 2011. These books have ideas that ought to change the world, but what has happened since they were published? Some people's lives, such as curi's, were changed dramatically, but only a tiny minority. Deutsch's status has not helped the ideas in these books gain acceptance.
EDIT: That should be Autonomy Respecting Relationships (ARR).
So, a professor of physics failed to convert the world to his philosophy. Why are you surprised? That's an entirely normal thing, exactly what you'd expect to happen. Status has nothing to do with it, this is like discussing the color of your shirt while trying to figure out why you can't fly by flapping your arms.