Note: it’s unclear to me how the category of “evolutionary restrictions” could apply to rationality techniques. Suggestions?
Ooh, ooh! I have one!
The value—and counter-intuitiveness—of a lot of scientific techniques seems similarly explicable. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies with 1000 subjects are hard to do if you’re a hunter-gatherer band with 50 members. Even when primitive hunter-gatherers could have theoretically done a particular experiment, rigorous scientific experiments are a lot of work. They may not pass cost-benefit analysis if it’s just your band that will be using the results. In order for science to be worthwhile, it helps to have a printing press that you can use to share your findings all over the world.
Ooh, ooh! I have one!