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I think the reason that people implicitly prefer a world where experts tell them what to know about the world and they wisely concur is that the world is GIGANTIC, SCARY, and CONFUSING.

No one...No one has time to study all of the big problems that impact their lives. Because we are so out of control in our lives, it is deeply comforting to believe in a world that can be tamed one expert at a time...That someone else can do the work for us and we can trust that they are eight...or at least...More right than we are.

If we have to face the reality that, for example, the climate system is far too complex to be owned by one or even several hundred experts, then climate change is out of our control...and it could kill us all and we'd have no way to understand it fully, let alone stop it.

The scientist can't have faith in experts, but the laymen? There are topics that you, too, just have faith, doc. Faith in that expert. When you go to the doctor, you trust that he knows more about your body systems than you do...enough that he can help make you healthy. You don't spend five years studying physiology and biochemistry and kinesiology, and neuroscience etc and argue rationally with your doc.

I personally loathe the state of medical "science" because too many people I love are sick or dying and the doctors can't tell me why...and they don't even seem to care enough to keep looking. But, I'll still haul my butt to my PCP when I have a cough that won't go away for two months to get allergy tests.

Point is...we HAVE to fave faith in experts. For many, that is good enough for all problems, because if it isn't, they're terrified.

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