As it happens, I found numerous cases of truly egregious cherry-picking, demonstrably false statements, and (no, I’m not kidding) out-of-context mined quotes in just a few pages of Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now.” Take a look for yourself. The terrible scholarship is shocking. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d9aaad_8b76c6c86f314d0288161ae8a47a9821.pdf
Would this be a good top-level post for the forum? I imagine lots of EAs have read Enlightenment Now or are planning to read it. It seems relevant to highlight the flaws that an influential book might have relating to its treatment of existential risks.
As it happens, I found numerous cases of truly egregious cherry-picking, demonstrably false statements, and (no, I’m not kidding) out-of-context mined quotes in just a few pages of Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now.” Take a look for yourself. The terrible scholarship is shocking. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d9aaad_8b76c6c86f314d0288161ae8a47a9821.pdf
Would this be a good top-level post for the forum? I imagine lots of EAs have read Enlightenment Now or are planning to read it. It seems relevant to highlight the flaws that an influential book might have relating to its treatment of existential risks.