There’s an easy and obvious coordination mechanism for rationalists, which is just to say they’re building X from science fiction book Y, and then people will back them to the hilt, as long as their reputation and track record for building things without hurting people is solid. Celebrated Book Y is trusted to explain the upsides and downsides of thing X, and people are trusted to have read the book and have the Right Opinions about all the tradeoffs and choices that come with thing X.
So really, it all comes down to the thing that actually powers the synagogue’s annual appeal—the Torah. The Torah has been doing its job for as long as there have been Jews to read it (or recite it from memory before it was written down), so everyone in the community can agree that the Torah and the Talmud and whatever are reasonable, so coordination becomes trivial. The rabbi standing up in front of the congregation has read all the Torah and Talmud there is, everyone knows and agrees on this fact, so the rabbi is trusted to have the best interests of the community at heart. Since the rabbi has the best interests of the community at heart, the expenses that the community has incurred are obviously real and obviously pressing. Since the rabbi hasn’t been going around doing horrible things (he hasn’t, right?), everyone knows that the money will actually be spent on the thing the rabbi says it will be spent on, not, I don’t know, building nuclear weapons to bomb the competing synagogue across town.
I think rationalists have a deeply good sense of responsibility for their actions and opinions. That’s the best thing about them. But I think they also don’t have enough respect for the actions and opinions of other people (particularly Other People With Different Opinions Who Are Not As Smart As Me). That’s the worst thing about them. As worst things go, it’s a pretty minor character flaw; nobody’s eating babies alive, they’re just kind of smug and condescending in a way that is counterproductive.
I think the thing going on with your pledge drive was that people are afraid to be publicly wrong about something that ends up mattering a great deal, and they don’t trust anyone else’s opinion about whether they’re right or wrong. To break through that force field, we need to start trusting our own wisdom literature, which is science fiction and fantasy, to help us solve the unsolvable challenges that Whatever-Is-Out-There keeps putting in front of us. Sure, mistakes will be made, bad books will be written, people will disagree about what the books mean. All that happens with the Torah and the Talmud too. It just doesn’t seem realistic that any one person could act in accordance with most or all the ethical rules laid out in all the science fiction and fantasy books that exist and still end up building something truly evil by coordinating effectively with other people who are also steeped in the science fiction and fantasy traditions. What would that even look like?
There’s an easy and obvious coordination mechanism for rationalists, which is just to say they’re building X from science fiction book Y, and then people will back them to the hilt, as long as their reputation and track record for building things without hurting people is solid. Celebrated Book Y is trusted to explain the upsides and downsides of thing X, and people are trusted to have read the book and have the Right Opinions about all the tradeoffs and choices that come with thing X.
So really, it all comes down to the thing that actually powers the synagogue’s annual appeal—the Torah. The Torah has been doing its job for as long as there have been Jews to read it (or recite it from memory before it was written down), so everyone in the community can agree that the Torah and the Talmud and whatever are reasonable, so coordination becomes trivial. The rabbi standing up in front of the congregation has read all the Torah and Talmud there is, everyone knows and agrees on this fact, so the rabbi is trusted to have the best interests of the community at heart. Since the rabbi has the best interests of the community at heart, the expenses that the community has incurred are obviously real and obviously pressing. Since the rabbi hasn’t been going around doing horrible things (he hasn’t, right?), everyone knows that the money will actually be spent on the thing the rabbi says it will be spent on, not, I don’t know, building nuclear weapons to bomb the competing synagogue across town.
I think rationalists have a deeply good sense of responsibility for their actions and opinions. That’s the best thing about them. But I think they also don’t have enough respect for the actions and opinions of other people (particularly Other People With Different Opinions Who Are Not As Smart As Me). That’s the worst thing about them. As worst things go, it’s a pretty minor character flaw; nobody’s eating babies alive, they’re just kind of smug and condescending in a way that is counterproductive.
I think the thing going on with your pledge drive was that people are afraid to be publicly wrong about something that ends up mattering a great deal, and they don’t trust anyone else’s opinion about whether they’re right or wrong. To break through that force field, we need to start trusting our own wisdom literature, which is science fiction and fantasy, to help us solve the unsolvable challenges that Whatever-Is-Out-There keeps putting in front of us. Sure, mistakes will be made, bad books will be written, people will disagree about what the books mean. All that happens with the Torah and the Talmud too. It just doesn’t seem realistic that any one person could act in accordance with most or all the ethical rules laid out in all the science fiction and fantasy books that exist and still end up building something truly evil by coordinating effectively with other people who are also steeped in the science fiction and fantasy traditions. What would that even look like?