Thread by @CovfefeAnon

Roko asks a few reasonable questions but they have an embedded assumption - that the system has a goal other than propagating the system or even more accurately - boosting the spiritual worth of people running the system.

Let's explore a related field - pandemic prevention.

https://twitter.com/RokoMijic/status/1463676256596148226

You're a federal bureaucrat and you've climbed your way to the top in a highly competitive environment.

How did you do that? Well, there was a key moment when you were a highly placed bureaucrat and the system needed the backing of The Science to throw up a smokescreen.

The moment of crisis was that the last great progressive victory of gay liberation seemed to have, well, created a massive deadly plague (oops).

Now this is very bad for the system - that's not at all what people who can promote you want to hear.

They want to hear *nice* things

So what do you do?

Well, you come up with a story that lets them hear nice things - "Hey, this plague can infect *anyone*, it certainly wasn't a massive downside to a feel-good progressive moment".

Congratulations, you were there when needed and have a long career ahead of you.

So now you're a mostly anonymous bureaucrat as far as the world is concerned but you're *important* in a small sphere - the people that *matter* (those looking for grants) know you and they have to kiss the ring.

You go before congress once in a while (you're important)

What do you do there? Well, you explain your budget to the representatives of the yokels.

You explain that your department needs every dollar it gets - why?

Because your grants are for *research* that *prevents pandemics*.

Can you believe these people?

You feel important, you are in charge of other *important*, *serious* people - people who *matter*.

People like the mover and shaker you give grant money to who runs an entire international team of researchers all of whom work on *important* matters.

Did you know that bats (due to having low body temperatures and living close together) are incubators for all kinds of viruses?

Well this guy did - because he's - well, not a Real Scientist - but someone even More Important - he has a *team* of Real Scientists.

The people working for him, well, they're humble sorts.

Just interested in *doing the research* - unsung heroes who do the grunt work.

It may not be much but everyone knows they Do Good.

Heck, she even gets a nickname.

Do you have one? Or are you just a guy in an office?

This is what Science is.

Now, how well does this machine produce the results that the higher ups haughtily deigned to explain to the proxy for the yokels? Does it "prevent pandemics"?

Oh.

There's your answer about obesity research.

At every level the system is optimized for making everyone in the system feel good and important.

Now, all the people with the right opinions *know* what good diet advice is - you know it too, don't you?

"Eat more *plants*, don't eat bad foods that low status people like"

When the system is giving grants for research, what gets funded?

Studies that *prove* what everyone *who matters* already knows about diet.

Is some researcher going to make enemies *with the people who give grants* by showing their cherished beliefs are wrong?

So what do you get?

You get research the quality and type that comes out of nutrition science - you can read the details about how the studies are so bad elsewhere (@Mangan150) but it's no accident.

The research is set up in such a way that it can confirm the Right Opinions.

@Mangan150 Each field has its own failure modes but fundamentally science is all broken because it's not operating as a search for truth and it never could - it operates as a way to boost the status of the people involved.

*This doesn't mean science is impossible* but...

@Mangan150 it does mean that science is impossible when what boosts the status of the people involved is tied up in a bureaucratic culture of grant giving.

The Royal Society model had different way of distributing status and so produced better *men* who produced better results.

/fin