All the rationality benefits here look small to me relative to fun / mental health benefits, non-rationality educational benefits, and time costs.
That said, creating plausible alternate history involves basically the same skills as predicting the future; I think the genre emphasizes accurate depictions of what would have happened more than SF emphasizes accurate depictions of what will happen. Of course, in neither case can one actually check one’s answers.
All the rationality benefits here look small to me relative to fun / mental health benefits, non-rationality educational benefits, and time costs.
That said, creating plausible alternate history involves basically the same skills as predicting the future; I think the genre emphasizes accurate depictions of what would have happened more than SF emphasizes accurate depictions of what will happen. Of course, in neither case can one actually check one’s answers.