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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31876 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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If I could design an elite college admissions system, here’s what I’d do:

I like the idea of an admissions essay. With two caveats:

  1. It must not involve any mention of the author, their life or their personal experiences. Every writer takes inspiration from their own stories, but thinly veiled personal narratives would be explicitly discouraged.

  2. Applicants are advised that essays about niche topics unfamiliar to admissions officers are strongly preferred.

The essays would be 950 words, with a 10 word margin, to encourage some discipline. Students would be encouraged to write about something officers hadn’t heard much (or anything) about, which would encourage original research. The essays would serve as strong indicators of verbal IQ, which is much more important for making it into the elite than spatial IQ.

Write an essay about a bizarre facet of local politics in a tiny village. Cover a weird crime nobody has ever written about. Tell me about a strange academic debate that occurred in a single third-rate Armenian university in the dying days of communism. This would drastically improve the jobs of admissions staff. It would also encourage genuine diversity of interests and even background to some extent.

The best essayists, who at Harvard, Yale and Stanford I would expect to rival the better staff writers at a Vanity Fair or equivalent, would be invited to interview.

The interview would involve three components.

  • The first would be a small talk stage where a handful of candidates would be put in a room with each other and some faculty. Their behavior would be observed. The ability to build rapport is critical. Some bias around attractiveness would creep in here, but this is a good thing, because the elite should be largely fit and beautiful.

  • The second would be a viva or panel where the interviewers would meticulously question the candidate about their essay, its inspiration and sources, the research and writing process, and the core nature of their point or argument. This element would test a student’s ability to defend themselves, to debate and to argue. It would also verify that their admissions essay was likely their own work, and that they are an intelligent and competent individual.

  • In the third component, a candidate would be handed another essay (by another candidate or pre-prepared by admissions, I’m undecided) that they had never read before. With five minutes of preparation, and before the same panel of academics and admissions staff, they would have to discuss the essay, defend any arguments therein, and rationalize any stylistic or other choices, plus defend (without evidence) the essay from criticism. This crucial stage would test a candidate’s ability to bullshit convincingly, the most important elite skill there is.

A score would be assigned based on the above three components, with each receiving equal weighting, and that score would determine admissions decisions.

What are your ideas for new college admissions systems (beyond the boring ‘just base it on the SAT’)?

This would never work for universities at large, but for certain select institutions like Harvard, I've pondered the idea of borrowing the West Point admissions process - let members of Congress nominate a certain number of students (say, 4 or 5 each every year) for admission to Harvard, after sorting through the applicants from their district/state. If diversity is the goal, this would ensure a wide range of racial, political and geographic diversity - how many Alaskans and Hawaiians get to go to Harvard otherwise?

This would heavily penalize the True Nerds, the sort who win math Olympiads, build particle accelerators in garages and hack the NSA at 15. By and large these nerds don't give a flying fuck about writing ability when they're that young (I know I certainly didn't), they don't even really try to play the game of maximizing admissions probability by volunteering or something, their life is entirely consumed by their passion and they just kind of hope that colleges will make a place for them. So under your system geniuses would no longer go to Harvard.

Isn't that a feature, not a bug? Would they even be happy at Harvard, as opposed to a couple miles down Mass Ave at the local technical school?

Those kids don’t go to Harvard anyways.

Fairness Harvard probably isn’t for them. The old University of Chicago (before they prestige whored and tried to become like everyone else), Cal Tech, the old Stanford, maybe MIT are the place for those kids.

The nice thing about "just base it on the SAT" is that the SAT is proctored. Even if you made everyone come write their 950 word essay in person, that would squelch the original-research component and yet it would still be gamed by students memorizing prepared essays in advance.

Actually ... maybe the proctored essay could work, if you gave assigned essay topics? Come up with ten thousand of them and choose 5 at random for each student to choose between when they arrive (so it doesn't matter if the list of topics leaks; they can still prep in general but not for specifics), even give students a web browser (ideally with library/Elsevier/LexisNexis/whatever subscriptions) they can research from (or copy from, but with a monitored browser that's just a filter to get rid of dumb cheaters).

As a shape rotator I still hate it, of course, but soon or later we'll be replacing the wordcels with matvecs (as well as ourselves, but grudges die hard); if we don't all die in the process it'll be nice for them to have an experience like this to look back on fondly.

In the old SAT, when it had a Writing section and was based out of 2400, had an essay. However, it was very game-able with a simple structure. You just had to do a simple 5 paragraph thing where you introduce the topic, give 2-3 examples, and clearly state a conclusion. Using some fancy SAT words helps. My friend group joked that you could always use Nazis to support your topic ("book burning is bad, when the nazis burned...")

In the old SAT

I guess this makes the pre-essay SAT I took "the ancient SAT"? And the pre-recentering version would be "the prehistoric SAT".

I never heard anything about the essay requirements that made me think much of it. My main problem with essays even when they're done right is that the grading is so much more subjective. IIRC there was some hubbub during my SAT year where a dispute about one of the Reading section questions led to a second of the multiple choice options being also accepted as correct, which I'm sure was embarrassing, but at least that's the sort of dispute you could take to the highest levels. I'm reading that each student's essay only had 2 scorers? Cross your fingers that you don't draw one of the short straws.

Of course, my real complaint about SAT changes was that they should never have removed analogies. These days the internet seems to be filled with people whose analysis of "dog : whale :: puppy : calf" is "You think dogs are the same as whales? You 'tarded, scrote?", and it's frightening to imagine that some of them might slip into college classes to ruin those too.

yes agreed. That's why you had to be formulaic. That's why to get the perfect 12 out of 12 score, you had to be obvious about what you did, so no essay grader could give you a lower score. Worst part was that you never got an explanation of why you got a 10 or 11 or 9 out of 12.

Yes analogies wouldve been nice, but it's too IQ-dependent and so obviously "racist"

Ugh. I feel old. That was the new SAT.

yeah I remember when I took it (out of 2400), it was supposed to be the "new" SAT (though it was around for a few years so we, the students, just thought of it as "the SAT")

The GRE (At least 14 years ago when I took it) had a proctored essay portion.

When I took it, the list of possible essay questions was public, but also very large. I remember I had at least read the prompt I had to answer before the exam. A quick search suggests ETS still publishes them.

… it would still be gamed by students memorizing prepared essays in advance…

If the cost of gaming your way through it is higher than the cost of doing the work outright, then it’s easier to just be an honest student and take your chances doing it the right way.

My ideal system: applicants strip naked, anoint themselves with oil, then are dropped together innawoods with nothing but a knife. The goal is to reach a pickup point a hundred miles away where 100 of them will be randomly selected to go on to stage 2. This will require them to work together while having a plan to betray their comrades, which is important for elite. Them being naked encourages looksism in their alliances, which is a good thing because the elite should be beautiful, solid, supple, tight, and golden skinned.

For stage 2 they are immediately driven over to the Mr Olympia stage and pose in front of 5000 people next to actual contestanfs. This will test their bullshitting and out-angling skills, which are the most important elite skills (have to look like the bigger guy in the hand shake photo ops).

For stage 2 they are immediately driven over to the Mr Olympia stage and pose in front of 5000 people next to actual contestanfs. This will test their bullshitting and out-angling skills, which are the most important elite skills (have to look like the bigger guy in the hand shake photo ops)

Only if they’re driven over naked, with the blood of the slain still caked on their skin.

They must ritually boil and extract the fat from the adipose tissue of the fallen, and then lather it over themselves.

That's showing that they can shine, above and beyond the process of victory against all odds.

And what better way to shine than be positively radiant; to bathe in the blubber of the fallen, then setting themselves alight? Enduring that surely shows strength of character.

This made me laugh out loud on the train, thanks. We could do with more humor here.

I'm doing my part!

Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?!

This ape does, but I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill them all first!

Lmao how'd I know? ;P

Applicants are advised that essays about niche topics unfamiliar to admissions officers are strongly preferred.

How could this ever be possible?

There’s no set cutoff, you can write about the Holocaust or the life of Abraham Lincoln or the Boston Tea Party if you want, but you’ll just be marked down on originality.

Idk if it's Jiro's objection, but what leaped to mind for me is, how are admissions officers supposed to evaluate the quality of essays about niche topics they don't know about? High-variance sampling to identify outliers doesn't work unless you can actually identify the outliers from the sampled data.

How do you evaluate the quality of Scott Alexander's posts on mental illness in primitive people or medicine? They're clearly still very well written.

Plus, OP said they wanted to encourage bullshitting. (not endorsing that)

I honestly can’t evaluate the quality of Scott’s primitive mental illness piece. If that were the only piece of writing I had ever seen from him, I would likely file it away in my brain with every other borderline crackpot blog post.

On the other hand, I have enough knowledge of biology and contact with the medical system to know when someone “gets it”. I can see that he is making points that are 1.) obviously correct, and 2.) that other people aren’t making. This is strong Bayesian evidence that Scott is indeed highly intelligent.

... but what leaped to mind for me is, how are admissions officers supposed to evaluate the quality of essays about niche topics they don't know about?...

As with anything, you never know. You have to rely on your best judgment and good taste to make that determination. My father used to tell me about old accounts of him and my uncle, trying to pioneer the idea of opening a restaurant when they were very young. My uncle would say, "it's easy, we'll just hire all the right people." To which my father's objection was, "how do you know they're the right people?" You don't. You simply evaluate them the best and only way you can.

Truth value of such an essay is hardly the point, right? If someone can make up a convincing yarn, more power to them.

No... you absolutely do not want people who make shit up to score points. Why on Earth would that be a good idea?

I suppose for power-seeking Machiavellian reasons, but if we're redesigning the college university system to not churn out bullshit indistinguishable from meaningful content, then we should start with not conditioning admissions on being able to churn out bullshit indistinguishable from meaningful content.

I have some bad news for you about major components of the college admissions system.

No... you absolutely do not want people who make shit up to score points. Why on Earth would that be a good idea?

Unfortunately for the school, this is exactly what it felt like I was doing every time I was tasked with an essay assignment. And the following assignments on to it only ever had it seem like they were asking me to come up with seven different ways to say exactly the same thing. That exercise in 'bullshit' was where the real mental work was. Not in a new thought space I was trying to blaze trails in.

Unironically, isn't that also what organizations like the NSA look for in new graduates? Odd as it may seem. A professional/good bullshitter in many ways is an ideal candidate. But it's a paradox. The NSA has a double mandate to uphold the security of the nation, while going after and pursuing its adversaries. They simultaneously want someone with an honest and clean background, who will lie for them and do all manner of Constitutionally underhanded things in favor of the institution's mandate and self-preservation.

On the other hand, you've got creative fiction writers.

Unironically, isn't that also what organizations like the NSA look for in new graduates?

Might depend on the position, but for the technical ones everyone associates with the NSA, no, they're looking for math nerds.

I presume that number one requirement NSA is looking for is complete political reliability, not even trace of any expressed doubt of current party line (and any previous party lines during applicant's lifetimes), plus no compromised or suspect persons among their family, friends and acquitances. One Snowden was enough.

Seeing as the proposed admissions system has a portion that explicitly "would test a candidate’s ability to bullshit convincingly, the most important elite skill there is" I assume that's what they were going for.

I think if most students were being honest at the point of their graduation ceremony, they would realize that bullshitting was probably the only 'real' thing they learned in school. By no means am I by default, sympathetic to the administration as 'educators' either.

I have a math degree. This doesn't resonate with me at all. I think the CS, physics and chemistry majors would agree. The people who only learn how to bullshit are the people who major in bullshit things like "business administration" or "literary criticism" maybe these degrees just shouldn't exist.

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Absolutely abhor everything about this idea. Wastes everyones time and money when you could just hand the kids a verbal iq test and achieve the exact same outcome without all this prissy tea party cucumber sandwhich Model UN nonsense. Oh wait something something beautiful. Use their instagram profiles as a proxy too while you are at it. The more photos they have in Europe (while on vacation on daddys money) and the sexier they are the higher the score.

In my ideal world we wouldnt be in this signalling shitfest that we are in with college degrees. 4 precious years each across millions of people wont be wasted... on not working amd forgetting it all anyways. Yes, I am homo economicus.

In my ideal world, American colleges would be overrun with Asians. Because they deserve it. They are smarter and more hard working. It is a crime against humanity to shaft their futures and potential livelihoods for social engineering. Yes, I believe fairness and equality of opportunity is of much importance. Much more than equality of outcome or having sexy elites. You fuck with meritocracy at your peril.

In my ideal world Harvard wouldnt exist. Every university would be like Georgia Tech. Easy to get into, hard to stay in. Yes, I think university should be for teaching technical skills that actually increase humam capital. Yes I do think STEM is more useful for mankind.

In my ideal world people would prove their technical and verbal chops with their work. They wouldnt be able to rest on their Harvard laurels, they should have skin in the game. Oh yeah you are soo good at people skills? Okay go make that 2 million dollar deal, prove it.

https://www.themotte.org/post/565/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/117177?context=8#context

The angriest Americans are white women of a certain middling sort, elevated enough to feel superior to the egalitarian masses, but not quite high enough to escape them. To them, America is hell.

They are angry at America for that same reason you love it. They are angry that it is a place of chaos without social distinction, a place where you could lose a life of savings on the poker table, and where the markers of social position provide less insulation against the market.

In my ideal world, everything would be run by people who embody the ethos of the first kind of American described in the post above and the second kind (like you) would be banished to underworld.

Yes, I think university should be for teaching technical skills that actually increase humam capital. Yes I do think STEM is more useful for mankind.

STEM gave us:

  • Nuclear weapons

  • Lockdowns, contact tracing, and vaccine passes

  • Rapidly increased spread of social epidemics like transsexuality

  • AIs that can scan all your private communications and report you for wrongthink and precrime

We need people who challenge the uncritical worship of STEM. The university should be the institution where that happens.

Fire gave us:

  • Arson, ruining our precious forests

  • Severe burns while cooking

  • Predators spotting our fires at night and coming to eat us

  • Toxic smoke, seriously damaging our eyes and lungs

We need people who challenge the uncritical worship of fire.

--

The criticism you're getting is that STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) is so core to modern civilization, the level of "uncritical worship" it gets is entirely reasonable. Unless you're in a log cabin in estonia, there are a hundred ten thousand distinct and identifiable products of "STEM" within a hundred feet of you. Plastic, paint, plywood, antibacterials/fungals embedded in that, light, glass, paper, all the parts in your phone/computer, clothing, processed food...

Also, criticism of the effects of one or another technology isn't exactly unheard of, everyone does it.

And the fine arts gave us Literal Hitler, so I guess they’re out, too.

Your bogeymen are no substitute for an actual argument. Especially not if you’re just going to slam them in there.

And the fine arts gave us Literal Hitler, so I guess they’re out, too.

Being critical of X does not mean that X is "out". (And yes we should also be critical of art, literature, philosophy, etc.)

Your bogeymen are no substitute for an actual argument.

My actual argument is that STEM sometimes does bad things, so we should be critical of it. Pretty straightforward. This is hardly a radical conclusion, by the way. It's harder to name things that we shouldn't be critical of! "Critical" doesn't mean "throw out completely". It means "skeptically evaluating", as opposed to "dogmatically accepting".

If you have an issue with one of the specific examples I raised in the bullet points, I'm happy to discuss it further.

It’s fine to be skeptical of the results of scientific research being used improperly. Most of which are policy issues anyway. Science can tell us how a disease spreads, but it cannot tell us to lock the population up in their homes and weld the doors shut. Science can tell us how to create nuclear fission, but not tell us to cram it into a bomb and drop in on a major city.

And to be honest, if anything we are actually much too skeptical of science and math. These tools of reason are the best methods available to understanding the universe. If we didn’t have the tools of science and mathematics, you’d be wearing a toga and writing this post on sheepskins as was tradition. You’d live in a world full of angels and demons and superstition where getting sick was punishment from God and the cure was bloodletting.

The problem is that we’ve done such a piss poor job of explaining what rigorous, scientific exploration of the universe has actually done for us that most people come away afraid of people they see as practical wizards reworking the world and conjuring new ideas from the ether. This was why COVID responses were so bad. It wasn’t science people were follow, it was lab-coated priests bringing down The Word from the mountain. Thus Saith the Experts is not remotely how real science works. Real science is about asking questions and looking for physical evidence of the answers.

Humanities could have been a good counterpoint and balance against excessive technophilia where everything you do with tech is good forever and we should never question it. But since it’s become unserious, ideologically corrupted, and lacks any sort of academic rigor, it’s mostly lost. A discipline that can regularly get obvious jokes printed in their academic journals isn’t going to save anyone. A discipline that argues mostly about words cannot save anyone.

Motte: STEM gave us , so we should “skeptically evaluate” it.

Bailey: STEM isn’t more valuable for mankind. Therefore, we shouldn’t favor STEM in universities.

I don’t mind your motte. I don’t think most people would mind it. Even @f3zinker’s original proposal allows it, because skepticism is not unique to the humanities.

It’s the bailey that gets me, because it hangs on this idea of (unfettered, “dogmatic”) STEM as a net negative. But where’d you do the work to justify that? You’ve just sort of thrown out all these boo lights. Even if I agreed with you on all of them, which I don’t, why fund the humanities instead of buying a cabin in Montana?

What is the value that you place on your heart? I mean your literal heart, the organ of flesh and blood.

In one sense, it is inestimably high. You can't live without your heart; you would sacrifice almost anything to keep it, if it was threatened. In another sense, it is essentially nothing, an afterthought, a pure zero. When was the last time you even thought about your heart? You will never compose panegyrics to it, or perform rituals in its honor; memories of it do not comfort you in times of want, thoughts of it will never enter your daydreams or fantasies. Living without it would make no difference to you, assuming such a thing were possible. How can such a thing be said to have any value?

We can say that something is necessary without thereby saying that it is valuable - and rightly so! The man who went out of his way to honor his own heart, who gave it a rank ordering of value higher than his own blood relations, would rightly be called perverse - even though, in the last analysis, he can live without his kin, but he cannot live without his heart.

When it comes to science - and for this one instant science is simply identified with technical vocational training, with "having a good head on one's shoulders", with the exertion of power over man by impersonal technological means - do we not risk making the same sort of error? Do we not risk confusing what is necessary with what is valuable? Do we not risk confusing the drudgery of life with life proper?

Of course there are many senses of the term "science" that we could disambiguate here. I do not paint my target equally over all of them. I have no quandary with theoretical science qua theoretical science, for example. There's nothing wrong with wanting to dedicate yourself to fundamental physics - it's a perfectly admirable pursuit. It is certainly not my aim here to adjudicate between, say, the aesthetics of the experience of reading early Latin poetry and the experience of studying string theory. There's room for both, there's no need to fight. I was once in training to become a mathematician, so I would like to believe that my taste in these domains is not entirely untutored.

Nor is it particularly my aim here to raise a question about the value of technological development. Of course, there are absolutely issues here too, certainly. But they are issues that can be partially bracketed. As a manifestation of the Faustian spirit, as the apotheosis of the Freudian death drive, there is something commendable even in technology that may lead to the annihilation of humanity, to the annihilation of all value. That's not my preferred course of action, naturally; but there is something commendable there nonetheless.

Far more contemptible than even the will to destruction is the will to mediocrity, the will to utility, the silent subjection to "what simply must be done". Homo economicus throws himself at "what must be done" with eyes wide open and a smile on his face; he eschews any identity of his own, he grinds himself down into something that is more machine than man, he becomes the willing accomplice of the protection racket that is modern science in its merger with capitalist economics. You can't stop doing science, you can never stop doing science, because the other guys have science too, and they're going to get us if we don't get out ahead of them. There's no time for a "humanist" education - we need more engineers, more researchers, more output, more growth, otherwise we're going to get crushed by someone else's output and someone else's growth. You must accept more surveillance, you must quantify more of your life, you must accept being connected to work 24/7, in the name of the efficiency that will serve this growth. And don't even think about not building the best damn AI you can, because dear god what if China gets AGI first? Such is the vicious circle that science has ensnared us in.

In some sense this is nothing more than a new layer of ornamentation over the same natural condition of man that has existed since time immemorial. The "state of nature" is certainly not any kinder. If you do not run you will die, if you do not fight you will die, if you do not eat you will die. But at least we once had a proper sense of the tragic about it! At least we once felt a sense of righteous indignation about this reality - we felt that it demanded redemption. But now, even the sense that there is a problem has been forgotten. Man's subjection to the technological order is viewed as not only necessary, but desirable.

Should we favor STEM in universities? Should you empty your bank account for the maniac who has a gun to your head? In one sense - yes, obviously! But you don't have to like it. The attitude behind an action can in fact tell us a great deal about whether the action is contemptible or praiseworthy. If you conduct yourself with dignity, should you not bristle at the imperiousness of science? Should you not chafe at the seemingly ineluctable demands it makes upon you?

There can be no change in conditions unless there is first a change in desire. Without desire, there is no hope. And if a change in man's condition is impossible, then I can at least make him loathe to accept that condition, and upset his happy conscience.

I believe that is as direct and honest a statement of my position as I can give.

The framing of science and technology as competitive just strikes me as silly. Yes, there is an element of competition but that's not all that science and technology does. It also is the reason we're not subsistence farming and instead able to have this high minded conversations in the first place.

But at least we once had a proper sense of the tragic about it! At least we once felt a sense of righteous indignation about this reality

You can mope in the tragedy and indignation, some of us aim to fix it.

I think having computers and jet engines and electric power plants is 'valuable', and thus sending many of our smartest people to institutions to learn science and engineering and create those things is worth doing. And that is much of why our institutions focus on STEM so much.

Also, the challenge and complexity of math/science/engineering is itself very interesting, for the same reason the challenge and complexity of MMA or having a written debate or making a good painting is interesting.

You can't stop doing science, you can never stop doing science, because the other guys have science too, and they're going to get us if we don't get out ahead of them

That is literally true, though. Groups of people who don't do science have been gotten over and over by those who do. Competition generally encourages improvement and growth, see evolution.

There's no time for a "humanist" education - we need more engineers, more researchers, more output, more growth, otherwise we're going to get crushed by someone else's output and someone else's growth.

Societies that didn't do humanist education also get gotten by those who did it, in the past.

Living without [your heart] would make no difference to you, assuming such a thing were possible. How can such a thing be said to have any value?

I don't need to use STEM to answer that; I can use the humanities, specifically referencing the laconic "if". Or perhaps the quip about counterfactuals attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Or I can use STEM, formal logic, and note that

Assume A

A -> B

B

B

is bad logic -- that is, that if you assume A (I can live without my heart) and prove B (my heart has no value) under that assumption, you cannot validly say you have proven B without that assumption.

We can say that something is necessary without thereby saying that it is valuable - and rightly so!

Seems unlikely, without some sort of sophistry you'd need formalisms to avoid.

The man who went out of his way to honor his own heart, who gave it a rank ordering of value higher than his own blood relations, would rightly be called perverse - even though, in the last analysis, he can live without his kin, but he cannot live without his heart.

This could mean at least two things. Either we expect a man to value his kin greater than his life -- in which case the fact that his heart is necessary to his life is not sufficient to make it more valuable than his kind. Or we somehow expect him to value his kin less than his life but more than his heart which is necessary to it.... which is incoherent, as Shakespeare might be able to tell you.

If you conduct yourself with dignity, should you not bristle at the imperiousness of science? Should you not chafe at the seemingly ineluctable demands it makes upon you?

Miguel de Cervantes might be able to tell you the results of such chafing. Or Rudyard Kipling.

This is a tortured form of thinking. And honestly, it might be passable in a high school "debate" class, but that's about it.

The reason those things exist is a failure of the humanities and whatsoever its role is for society.

  • Nuclear weapons - STEM doesn't tell you anything about whether to use them or not.

  • Lockdowns, contact tracing, and vaccine passes - Same, just don't pass policy implementing them.

  • Rapidly increased spread of social epidemics like transsexuality - Really? The trans movements' postmodern roots are the antithesis of science. Seriously ask those 78 gender folk how they feel about biology.

  • AIs that can scan all your private communications and report you for wrongthink and precrime - The takeaway from reading 1984 is not to stop producing tech that enables Big Brother, It's to not let him become all that big to begin with.

I get it, you made a cute consequentialist set of arguments. Rich being that the same thing you are making the argument against saved you from dying of polio at age 3 or allowed you to make this comment at all. Revisit what "science" is or maybe the difference between an "is" or an "ought". I am not smart enough for galaxy brained what if consequentialist shit.

The reason those things exist is a failure of the humanities and whatsoever its role is for society.

Then plainly, the humanities needs our help! We need even more funding for the humanities, so it can do better next time.

This line of reasoning proves too much. The phrenology department has never produces anything of any value, so surely that should get even more funding than the humanities?

The actually producing research over real subjects parts of the humanities does, yes, but it would get misappropriated for the spinning bullshit parts.

Fixing and funding aren't synonyms, though. And it seems pretty clear that there's no viable mechanism by which extra funding for the humanities would lead to fixing it, not without some other methods far more significant than extra funding. When an oncologist sees a malignant tumor, his solution usually isn't to feed more into the organ from which that tumor is growing, in the theory that the organ, with more resources, will somehow be able to fight off the tumor; this would rarely lead to the desired results. It's usually to excise the tumor in some way that leaves the organ severely impeded and possibly non-functional, but still far far healthier than the tumor being present and now having some hope of making a recovery to functionality.

They did not fail because of lack of funding so adding more funding without addressing the actual problems will likely make things worse

STEM did not give us lockdowns or vaccine passes -- that was bullshitting. It gave us rapidly increased spread of social epidemics (and real ones) as a side effect of better technology. And it gave us nukes and AIs (including ones put to evil use) and contact tracing. It also gave us damn near everything that separates us from the apes.

We need people who challenge the uncritical worship of STEM.

We already have that kind of smart feller, and they're already at universities. They don't seem to be all that useful. The only one of those anyone outside such rarified atmospheres paid much attention to died in a prison cell recently.

STEM did not give us lockdowns or vaccine passes -- that was bullshitting.

Quarantines did exist in the pre-modern world. But I think the Covid lockdowns were of a uniquely large scale, and of a uniquely pervasive character, such that they only could have existed with the aid of modern technology. I don't think Covid would have played out the way it did without the internet (for WFH and Zoom calls), phone apps, and social media.

We already have that kind of smart feller, and they're already at universities. They don't seem to be all that useful.

Well, maybe. But what conclusions are we supposed to draw from that?

If you think that the institutionalized critique of STEM supremacism and neoliberal market ideology ("homo economicus", as @f3zinker puts it) is genuinely vital, as I do, then I don't see why you should be dissuaded by contingent failures and defects of the university system. Sometimes things don't work out. That's the way it goes. But that doesn't mean you give up. That just means you try harder next time!

If you think it's impossible for the university to have any positive impact in this area at all, then that would be different. But I don't see why we should accept that. Do you think it's just impossible for the university to have any impact on culture or politics? A number of rightists claim that contemporary progressivism can trace its roots back to the "postmodern neo-Marxism" of the Frankfurt school - i.e. it's an ideology that started in universities and percolated outward. What do you think of those claims?

If you just DON'T think that a humanistic critique of STEM is important, or if you think it's outright pernicious, then of course you would be in favor of just turning universities into trade schools. But then, that would just be grounded in your preexisting political commitments, not in any empirical facts about the university itself.

But I think the Covid lockdowns were of a uniquely large scale, and of a uniquely pervasive character, such that they only could have existed with the aid of modern technology.

Prisons and slave camps have existed for a very long time. You don't need modern tech for lockdowns.

We already have that kind of smart feller, and they're already at universities. They don't seem to be all that useful.

Well, maybe. But what conclusions are we supposed to draw from that?

That generalized handwringing over science and technology is useless.

If you think that the institutionalized critique of STEM supremacism and neoliberal market ideology ("homo economicus", as @f3zinker puts it) is genuinely vital, as I do

"Critique of STEM supremacism" is useless because the alternatives tend to be woo (used to be religious, now usually is not explicitly so), navel-gazing, hand-wringing, self-flagellation, or something along those lines. Critique of neoliberal market ideology tends to converge on communism, which was the most destructive ideology to grace the 20th century. The arguments for these things tend to be nothing but sentiment, sophistry, lies, and misdirection.

If you just DON'T think that a humanistic critique of STEM is important

Calling something "humanistic" is assuming the conclusion; the idea is that somehow STEM is in opposition to humans. (If you claim the original definition of humanism -- that is, as opposed to supernaturalism -- then STEM is a part of it. But usually "humanistic" in this sense is just the opposite, a woo term excluding STEM from proper human pursuits)

"Critique of STEM supremacism" is useless because the alternatives tend to be woo

It's not a question of "alternatives," its a recognition that STEM disciplines are still full of people, with the same conflicts of interest, corruptions, status-games, cliquishness, and all the rest. STEM doesn't get you an "objective" view of society because the map is still not the territory, and to the degree that it gets you an objective view of the physical universe you still have to convince all the other non-STEM people that you're right or else they'll just coordinate meanness against you using the same old dark arts as always while you're demonstrating the perfection of your equations alone at a blackboard.

That doesn't make "Critique of STEM supremicism" better or more useful; that makes it (as would be expected) harmful (to STEM people).

No, it makes it a "momento mori"-type reminder of fallibility. But I suspect we'll have to agree to disagree here.

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"Critique of STEM supremacism" is useless because the alternatives tend to be woo

I suppose I wasn't clear enough originally. "Critique of STEM" doesn't mean a critique of a materialist worldview. It would mean something like: a critique of the notion that STEM should be distinguished as uniquely valuable in comparison to other types of intellectual activity, and a critique of the closely related notion that economic productivity should be the central overriding goal of social organization. And also a critique of the value of technology.

It's not woo to suggest that people shouldn't build advanced AI. It's also not woo to suggest that we should value things other than raw economic productivity. You may think these propositions are stupid or counterproductive, but they're not "woo".

I suppose I wasn't clear enough originally. "Critique of STEM" doesn't mean a critique of a materialist worldview. It would mean something like: a critique of the notion that STEM should be distinguished as uniquely valuable in comparison to other types of intellectual activity, and a critique of the closely related notion that economic productivity should be the central overriding goal of social organization. And also a critique of the value of technology.

When I said the alternatives were woo, etc, I meant those "other types of intellectual activity".

It's not woo to suggest that people shouldn't build advanced AI.

No, that's hand-wringing. There are things man was not meant to know, just because we could doesn't mean we should, etc. Perhaps you could come up with solid reasons it's a bad idea to build advanced AI, but then you'd be back in the realm of STEM.

It's also not woo to suggest that we should value things other than raw economic productivity.

It isn't, but for some reason this notion always ends up being advocacy of or defense of some sort of redistribution of the fruits of "raw economic productivity", which is why I said it converges on communism.

When I said the alternatives were woo, etc, I meant those "other types of intellectual activity".

What do you mean by "woo"? I always understood "woo" to essentially mean "supernatural". Is that how you're using the word?

There might be many criticisms you could make of what goes on in English departments or women's studies departments, but I don't think "belief in the supernatural" is one of them.

Perhaps you could come up with solid reasons it's a bad idea to build advanced AI, but then you'd be back in the realm of STEM.

You seem to be saying here that STEM (let's just say science) can give us knowledge of "solid reasons". If that's the case, then what area of science is responsible for studying "solid reasons"? What is our current best scientific theory of "solid reasons"? If I open a physics textbook, I can find quarks, and wave functions, and black holes, but I can't find any "solid reasons". Where are they?

This isn't just idle speculation. It seems like in order for science to give us knowledge of X, then either we have to be able to directly observe X, or we have to have a scientific theory of X. But neither of those criteria seems to be met here. I can't look out my window and see any "solid reasons".

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The only one of those anyone outside such rarified atmospheres paid much attention to died in a prison cell recently.

You mean the archetypal ‘M’ who was just a bit angry at the ‘T’?

I have no idea what you're talking about, I mean the author of "Industrial Society and it's Future".

My point was that Ted, a math prodigy, was the ultimate STEMlord, he just didn't like the 'technology' part. He had no qualms with math.

See, StEMlords are even superior at critiquing STEM!

In my ideal world, American colleges would be overrun with Asians. Because they deserve it. They are smarter and more hard working. It is a crime against humanity to shaft their futures and potential livelihoods for social engineering. Yes, I believe fairness and equality of opportunity is of much importance. Much more than equality of outcome or having sexy elites. You fuck with meritocracy at your peril.

There’s a strange truth-in-irony about this. The way trends seem to be shaping up the next couple of decades, may suggest that the smartest students look at their future and think the cost won’t justify their education. And so they decide not to participate and go to college. The existing paradigm has been those that attend university and graduate earn considerably more during their lifetimes. There’s no really denying that. But that may not be the case in 10-20-30 years time.

I think the educational landscape is going to become a bigger political issue in the future. And technology is also changing the pace and is far ahead of the conversation than public policymakers are. If you look at a field like cybersecurity for instance, some statistics I saw awhile back indicated that the field had a 0% unemployment rate. Meaning it’s in incredibly high demand. I forget where I read that, so don’t ask for a source. But I know of a large pool of people who work in cybersecurity and didn’t go to college at all or have a degree. Granted, people have suggested places like GitHub are the best way to get your ‘resume’ of sorts out there and demonstrate your skills. But the field definitely hasn’t crystallized and cast itself in the traditional mould to obtaining a career in that field.

Who knows if it’ll capitulate to the same dynamic we have currently, or if it'll disrupt the path to an education and signal a sign of broader things to come.

In my ideal world Harvard wouldnt exist. Every university would be like Georgia Tech. Easy to get into, hard to stay in. Yes, I think university should be for teaching technical skills that actually increase humam capital. Yes I do think STEM is more useful for mankind.

Many European universities are like this (especially in Italy, Germany, France to some extent outside the Grandes Ecoles). I see no evidence it produces any particularly better talent than the American system.

They are angry at America for that same reason you love it. They are angry that it is a place of chaos without social distinction, a place where you could lose a life of savings on the poker table, and where the markers of social position provide less insulation against the market.

You can believe in this system, but then you can’t be mad when it imports a cavalcade of global elites to sustain itself and they walk right on over you.

Many European universities are like this (especially in Italy, Germany, France to some extent outside the Grandes Ecoles). I see no evidence it produces any particularly better talent than the American system.

Something to keep in mind is that part of the American system's "production" of talent is brain-draining the rest of the world...

I would wager America is only "producing" talent in Computer Science. Rest of the sciences ~70% (guesstimate) of the faculty/researchers in US Universities are foreign.

Ironically enough selection into CS programs is relatively much more meritocratic.

That’s around the right percentage for grad students.

Foreign-born workers are about 50% of PhD engineers and computer scientists, and the fractions are lower for other sectors or with less education. They’re around 18% of the broader category of technical workers. Of course, some of these people are foreign born but naturalized. So I can’t give an exact number, but 50% is an upper bound.

I’ll also note that foreigners are concentrated in engineering/compsci relative to other fields. Including medicine. So we are quite probably producing significant fractions of skilled doctors, lawyers, and other prestige careers.

You can believe in this system, but then you can’t be mad when it imports a cavalcade of global elites to sustain itself and they walk right on over you.

I live in a place that has this 10x more than America.

I see no evidence it produces any particularly better talent than the American system.

Does it produce a better elite class in society? Maybe on STEM, it doesn’t produce anything noticeably better than we do. But I also don’t see any clear indication that it produces anything worse than we do either.

It is a crime against humanity to shaft their futures and potential livelihoods for social engineering.

Are their livelihoods actually negatively affected by being denied admission to Ivy League schools? My impression is that by future income and most other material measures of success there isn't any effect. In the same way, when Jews were kept out of Harvard all their Nobel Prize-winning scientists went to CUNY instead, and didn't seem any worse off for it.

I don't think going to a local community college and then transferring to a school that hasn't rejected an application since the 80's has a huge effect on private sector prospects, but it does have a pretty big effect on prospects for joining academia, which is important for shaping societal consensus.

It hurts you in certain careers, notably law. How many Supreme Court justices hail from the American Samoa Correspondence Law School?

Hell, look how similar all of their career trajectories are. Barret's not having been on the DC circuit was somehow a mark against her.

But are we to believe the life of the AA admit is made worse off by going to another lesser school? That is, school only matters if you aren’t brilliant?

Going to prestigious schools is important, not because of income, but because of connections. The connections available to you socializing while at MIT or Harvard are vastly stronger and more likely to land a person in the top 0.01%, than if you go to OSU.

The key to getting into the ground floor of facebook or netflix or paypal wasn't technical skill, it was who they knew.

Going to prestigious schools is important, not because of income, but because of connections. The connections available to you socializing while at MIT or Harvard are vastly stronger and more likely to land a person in the top 0.01%, than if you go to OSU.

This. This is what parents paying up the nose for "elite education" are paying for, but people do have to pretend politely that secret of Harvard is some superior knowledge that cannot be found elsewhere, some superior teaching skills that cannot be replicated.

As a corollary, if Junior is autistic who cannot make friends or schizoid who doesn't want to, if Junior actually spends his time in prestigious university studying instead of boozing, all your money spent on elite education is wasted.

The key to getting into the ground floor of facebook or netflix or paypal wasn't technical skill, it was who they knew.

For the tech ground floor, I suspect a Harvard degree would mean quite a bit less than it usually does, though. Aren’t the big (and notoriously hard) schools still MIT, Stanford, and CMU closely followed by Berkeley?

Which leads me to think — it’s true that Harvard is universally regarded as elite by Everyone, but when we take into account specific disciplines, different schools start to jump up; and the more specialized you go, the more true this is, to the extent that some people going for a PhD in the hard sciences will forgo Ivy League invitations in favour of offers by schools with that one specific professor.

Which fits into the original point by the OP — this sort of skill and display of intelligence is nerd stuff, only distantly related to class signaling.

They’re not talking about getting in at interview stage, they’re talking about the fact that the earliest Facebook guys were literally Zuck’s fellow Harvard students.

Ah, I see. That makes more sense then.

It was both. And that also means the dude who got rejected lost that “key.” So there was measurable harm.

Point is, if you want to be a regular tradesperson, make up to 200k+, maybe climb the corporate ladder, you can do that with any other kind of technical degree, or even just skill alone if you're good enough.

But to graduate from NPC-hood and become an actual ascending elite, making marks on society, for that, connections with those who have gobs of money to fund your ventures, matter much more.

This is true, although to be honest even 95% of Harvard graduates aren’t “true” elites by this definition, they’re just median private equity guys and consultants and corporate lawyers and staff writers for ‘The New Republic’ or Vox or whatever.

Most people do not make meaningful personal marks on society, it's true.

But then the point is that those who are unfairly rejected from the elite university is actually harmed.

Yes.

If you’re an elite aspirant it might. If you’re an average Joe looking to make his way in the world, probably not. But if you’re the latter, you’re probably not attending an Ivy League school in the first place. Most people go to those institutions for the prestige and networking. A dense and rigid education is incidental and secondary to that aim.

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