The linked article ends with this; I think this part of context is necessary. Emphasis mine:
Right now, we’ve got the worst of both worlds. Science isn’t really free, because the courses are expensive and the textbooks are expensive. But the public thinks that anyone is allowed to know, so it must not be important. Ideally, you would want to arrange things the other way around.
As I understand it, the Conspiracy world is a mental experiment with different advantages and disadvantages. And a tool used to illustrate some other concepts in a storytelling format (because this is what humans pay more attention to), such as resisting social pressure, actually updating on a difficult topic, and a fictional evidence that by more rational thinking we could be more awesome.
But it’s not an optimal (according to Eliezer, as I understand the part I quoted) world. That would be a world where the science is open (and financially available, etc.) to everyone and yet, somehow, people respect it. (The question is, how to achieve that, given human psychology.)
The linked article ends with this; I think this part of context is necessary. Emphasis mine:
As I understand it, the Conspiracy world is a mental experiment with different advantages and disadvantages. And a tool used to illustrate some other concepts in a storytelling format (because this is what humans pay more attention to), such as resisting social pressure, actually updating on a difficult topic, and a fictional evidence that by more rational thinking we could be more awesome.
But it’s not an optimal (according to Eliezer, as I understand the part I quoted) world. That would be a world where the science is open (and financially available, etc.) to everyone and yet, somehow, people respect it. (The question is, how to achieve that, given human psychology.)