4 ms·

This is a good thing. If we entertained every crackpot theory we would waste tons of time. it's good for there to be some gatekeeping. Of course sometimes they'

This is a good thing. If we entertained every crackpot theory we would waste tons of time. it's good for there to be some gatekeeping. Of course sometimes they're wrong - but so what? That will come out if there is actual evidence.

eloff 6y ago
There is a balance here, you are correct, but I think we currently skew too far toward gatekeeping. Too little gatekeeping means trouble finding the signal through the noise and time wasted on dead ends. Too much and good ideas get neglected or squashed for far too long. There is a cost to both.
- emmelaich 6y ago
  There's another aspect - with strong gatekeeping it is assumed that those theories that make it through are true.
  - pdimitar 6y ago
    Not really, they often are simply in tune and in agreement with the currently established group-think.
- totalZero 6y ago
  Unfortunately, gatekeeping is essential to academia. Ask anyone who wants to publish a finding independently, or read a paper for free without being associated with an institution. Heck, ask the undergrads who paid tens of thousands of dollars for Zoom classes that have MOOC alternatives alternatives. > Too little gatekeeping means trouble finding the signal through the noise and time wasted on dead ends. Much time is supposed to be spent on dead ends anyway. That's the way the corpus matures, not to mention an inevitable result of peer review (no need to review anything if all the research product is perfect). Research is a search; imagine running BFS without expecting to encounter dead ends.