I have a sense that a large part of the success of scientific norms comes down to their utility being immediately visible.
I agree with this. I don’t think science has the attractor property I was discussing, but it has this other attraction of being visibly useful (which is even better). I was trying to use science as an example of the self-correction mechanism.
Or perhaps I am having a semantic confusion: is science self-propagating in that scientists, once cultivated, go on to cultivate others?
Yes, this is the sense of self-propagating that I intended.
I agree with this. I don’t think science has the attractor property I was discussing, but it has this other attraction of being visibly useful (which is even better). I was trying to use science as an example of the self-correction mechanism.
Yes, this is the sense of self-propagating that I intended.