However, they don’t disseminate this art to all their citizens to the greatest possible extent. They teach it fully to just a select few, and teach everyone else a good chunk. Their reason for holding out on making most people into the best rationalists they can be … is that, as an unfortunate quirk of human psychology … becoming the best rationalist you can as quickly as you can is not the most fun path you can chart through your life.
Definitely not out of a desire for power, or a preference for created* a united technocratic elite, or selfishly securing fun for themselves.
*(preference for) creating, or maintaining. It’s also an ongoing process.
an unfortunate quirk of human psychology
Because everyone is exactly the same? No. (And that’s without getting into ‘do some people like math, and others dislike it, or does that have to do with the education system?’)
‘Holding out’ means that something is off.
Those who say “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be” may continue to walk the Path from there. But not uncommonly, even somebody who sets out along that Path, turns back at some point, and well short of becoming a Keeper.
This sounds like it was written by someone who doesn’t recognize that there are other purposes. (The argument being made is not that ‘there are diminishing returns’ - instead it’s that there are costs (and not from time).)
comparative advantages there—in how little they’ll be hurt by knowing themselves
If you never learn how to use a knife because you might hurt yourself, then
you are a danger. What happens if you get your hands on a knife?
Except a person who doesn’t know how to use a knife isn’t that dangerous.
You are a fool
and are grateful for winning the comparative-advantage lottery.
There’s this idea that this is better.
a little more human,
And also that Keepers are less human. Perhaps the two are in conflict.
That’s a sad tradeoff and I wish it didn’t exist.
What if there is a way beyond that?
What you are willing to trade off, will sometimes get traded away—a dire warning in full generality.
And What you trade away, may not be necessary to trade away, in general. (‘Alas! Campbell’s curse will strike us if we optimize!’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because of factors we don’t know.’ ‘So, why not just learn about more factors, so you don’t run into that problem?’ ‘It’s not that simple.’ ‘If you increase the amount you spend on things, and that increases the quality, then decreases it, then sharply increases it again and then decreases it, why not just make the jump to the best part you can reach, and avoid the worse regions, the dips?’)
Supposedly.
Definitely not out of a desire for power, or a preference for created* a united technocratic elite, or selfishly securing fun for themselves.
*(preference for) creating, or maintaining. It’s also an ongoing process.
Because everyone is exactly the same? No. (And that’s without getting into ‘do some people like math, and others dislike it, or does that have to do with the education system?’)
‘Holding out’ means that something is off.
This sounds like it was written by someone who doesn’t recognize that there are other purposes. (The argument being made is not that ‘there are diminishing returns’ - instead it’s that there are costs (and not from time).)
If you never learn how to use a knife because you might hurt yourself, then
you are a danger. What happens if you get your hands on a knife?
Except a person who doesn’t know how to use a knife isn’t that dangerous.
You are a fool
There’s this idea that this is better.
And also that Keepers are less human. Perhaps the two are in conflict.
What if there is a way beyond that?
And What you trade away, may not be necessary to trade away, in general. (‘Alas! Campbell’s curse will strike us if we optimize!’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because of factors we don’t know.’ ‘So, why not just learn about more factors, so you don’t run into that problem?’ ‘It’s not that simple.’ ‘If you increase the amount you spend on things, and that increases the quality, then decreases it, then sharply increases it again and then decreases it, why not just make the jump to the best part you can reach, and avoid the worse regions, the dips?’)