(haven’t looked through comments, so this may have been suggested many times over)
In a college-level rationality course, it would be most appropriate for a portion of the grade to be determined by an artificial economy. That is, set up a currency and a (relatively even) starting distribution, add (probabilistic) opportunities for investment (perhaps linked to other important parts of the course) and, most importantly, make defection possible, anonymous and easy. Make it, as much as possible, like a vast array of one-shot (or known number of iterations) Prisoner’s Dilemmas.
Then allow students to organize into institutions with rules. Well-taught rationalists should be able to construct a very strong economy along these lines; poorly-taught ones will be only rational enough not to cooperate out of an irrational sense of honor. A student’s final grade on that component will be the logarithm of their final wealth, curved as little as possible.
It would take a well-designed setup, of course, to ensure that we’re truly measuring rationality and not (say) merely group cameraderie; but I think it could be worked out in a satisfactory way.
The main upshot of this as regards rationality verification: if two different rationality curricula run the same economy setup, a consistently better growth rate of one class economy is evidence of the second kind that more complete rationality is being taught. The students have a much bigger incentive towards their own grade than towards the reputation of the class, so it should be a pretty decent test.
I’m assuming an introductory type of class, for students with some scientific background but no rationality training. (Where on earth would you find a college class full of post-Sequences people?)
(haven’t looked through comments, so this may have been suggested many times over)
In a college-level rationality course, it would be most appropriate for a portion of the grade to be determined by an artificial economy. That is, set up a currency and a (relatively even) starting distribution, add (probabilistic) opportunities for investment (perhaps linked to other important parts of the course) and, most importantly, make defection possible, anonymous and easy. Make it, as much as possible, like a vast array of one-shot (or known number of iterations) Prisoner’s Dilemmas.
Then allow students to organize into institutions with rules. Well-taught rationalists should be able to construct a very strong economy along these lines; poorly-taught ones will be only rational enough not to cooperate out of an irrational sense of honor. A student’s final grade on that component will be the logarithm of their final wealth, curved as little as possible.
It would take a well-designed setup, of course, to ensure that we’re truly measuring rationality and not (say) merely group cameraderie; but I think it could be worked out in a satisfactory way.
The main upshot of this as regards rationality verification: if two different rationality curricula run the same economy setup, a consistently better growth rate of one class economy is evidence of the second kind that more complete rationality is being taught. The students have a much bigger incentive towards their own grade than towards the reputation of the class, so it should be a pretty decent test.
What’s the starting rationality level of the students? Traditional rationality level or post-Sequences level?
I’m assuming an introductory type of class, for students with some scientific background but no rationality training. (Where on earth would you find a college class full of post-Sequences people?)