17: Roger's Bacon - Using Cults to Power Science
Roger's Bacon is a pseudonymous blogger and the creator of the new Seeds of Science journal.
Seeds of Science: https://www.theseedsofscience.org/
Roger's Bacon blog: https://rogersbacon.substack.com/
Roger's Bacon Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogersBacon1
My blog: https://dwarkeshpatel.com/
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp
Timestamps
0:00:05 Who is Roger's Bacon?
0:05:03 The need for scientific diversity
0:10:50 Why are our institutions so homogenous?
0:19:35 In defense of cults
0:24:05 Does innovation require isolation?
0:32:16 Diversity of institutions vs individuals
0:36:05 Can we create weird secret societies?
0:42:40 Secret longtermists and pseudonymous thinkers
0:46:50 Science needs religion
0:54:50 How contingent is science
0:59:05 Seeds of Science
1:09:50 Randomness in science
1:14:55 Why committees suck
1:21:05 Resetting institutions and reinventing ideas
1:32:30 Teaching at a STEM high school
1:53:01 Big picture thinking vs technical skills
1:58:55 Finding blindspots
2:01:57 Being realistic about the far future