Discussion about this post

User's avatar
RobinHanson's avatar

Yes biases could persist over very long durations, but even so most expect that some biases don't last, so they have a better chance to be judged fairly by posterity than by their immediate contemporaries.

Expand full comment
Peter Gerdes's avatar

Interesting idea and it might work with tweaks in some areas but I seems to me a big problem here is the very same bias towards elites and those with status in our society you regularly point out.

I mean consider your own arguments about challenge trials on Covid. Surely you believe they should have been given more attention but it seems to me that all the factors which actually causes our elites to dismiss them and ignore them will be present for these future historians as well plus more. I mean those whose ideas are implemented gain status and respect and saying we shouldn't have done that is an attack on those history looks at fondly and who will have entrenched support in the future. And they won't even be killing people so it's all that much easier to say that it was more important not to have challenge trials then (same discomfort but less actual harm from catering to it).

I mean do you think that a loyalist who argued in the late 1700s against the us leaving the uk would get a more fair hearing today than at the time? My sense is a less fair hearing because those who win historical battles win the status and admiration of the future generation that paying out to the contrarian convinced they are right would conflict with. And even if this turns out not to be true you need people who feel undervalued now to believe they won't be in the future which is a tall bar.

Expand full comment
8 more comments...

No posts