I believe there are meaningful things people believe/do nowadays that they didn’t 300 years ago (e.g. using the scientific method).
Unfortunately, for all these things, they’re either:
a) adopted only by some people, not the majority.
b) As DanArmak says, adopted only because of “peer pressure” or other social reasons.
Now, that’s not to say CFAR’s mission isn’t still worthwhile—raising the sanity waterline of just certain segments of the population, e.g. the top X% in terms of intelligence, is still of great importance.
But if there really aren’t general “rationality techniques” that have been adopted by most people, if the average person today is no more rational than a person 500 years ago, then I suppose you’re right—my bottom line might need to change to “maybe we can’t reach the general populace”.
I believe there are meaningful things people believe/do nowadays that they didn’t 300 years ago (e.g. using the scientific method).
Unfortunately, for all these things, they’re either: a) adopted only by some people, not the majority. b) As DanArmak says, adopted only because of “peer pressure” or other social reasons.
Now, that’s not to say CFAR’s mission isn’t still worthwhile—raising the sanity waterline of just certain segments of the population, e.g. the top X% in terms of intelligence, is still of great importance.
But if there really aren’t general “rationality techniques” that have been adopted by most people, if the average person today is no more rational than a person 500 years ago, then I suppose you’re right—my bottom line might need to change to “maybe we can’t reach the general populace”.