The ideas produced by a group of diverse minds occupy more volume in the space of ideas because they overlap less than those produced by a similarly sized group of like-minded individuals.
It's the same concept used in finance, diversification. In societies it helps to compensate the systematic mistakes which each individual can make when being alone.It requires higher skills though.
People forget the second part. Ten brilliant minds that think alike won't come up with as many ideas as ten different ones. So diversity has utility in and of itself, ethics notwithstanding.
...and the same goes for the fields of law, medicine, business, art, philisophy, literature, psychology, education, government, and on and on. More ethical, better results.
You have framed it precisely, i.e. "encouraging diversity" (vs. "enforcing diversity"). It is a no brainer (imho) that "diversity", will yield to better results in-time because through diversity one increases selection/sample size. However, Meritocracy(M) should also uphold, so I say DEIM (DEI+M)!
The question I struggle with: "if a group starts with "M" privilege (i.e. an advantaged "M"), then what is the correct way to equalize the "M" across diverse groups? This is the "E" part of DEI that is fuzzy for me. For Equity, I think there has to be term-limited allocation to underprivileged.(?)
The original intent of DEI wasn't to interfere with meritocracy, the intention was to ensure that a person's merits didn't include a specific race or religion or sexual preference etc.
Implemented properly, DEI should strengthen any true meritocracy.
Lack of diversity is why cameras and automatic sinks are bad for people with darker skin tones and microphones don't pick up the do complexity of women's voices. It's also why there's a lack of research into conditions that don't primarily affect white men
Take the Potato: The Irish only had a few varieties and when a pest came it resulted in a huge famine. The indigenous people in South America had cultural practices that promoted variety. A pest could never shock their system in the same way.
I love how your podcasts include not just physicists, but philosophers, biologists, astrophysicists, sociologists….
Your best podcast have been (to me): J.P. Allison, Acemoglu, Penrose, and Kip Thorne.
Please don’t ever stop. 🙏
Fascists put ideology above rationality. That is their weakness. Their antisemitism caused some of the best german scientist to flee and work for the allies.
We must fight against the white supremacists in office who are currently destroying that. AND they shut down NIH and blocked study sections, travel to conferences, and patient care!
The idea that reality emerges is perhaps the idea that has left the deepest impression on me. Normally one encounters and is impressed by top ideas in their youth. So, I assume this is on the rare side.
Comments
Implemented properly, DEI should strengthen any true meritocracy.
Your best podcast have been (to me): J.P. Allison, Acemoglu, Penrose, and Kip Thorne.
Please don’t ever stop. 🙏
Your reference to morality reminded me of that.