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Best for an individual or for society?

Consider a simplified example. There is some area of scientific research. Working within the framework gives you a 1 in 4 chance of making some minor improvement. Working outside the framework gives you a 1 in a million chance to create a great leap in knowledge.

For any single individual, the best choice is the former. The latter is a gamble that most people will lose, wasting their lives chasing crazy theories.

For society, you want a split. You need some doing the second option to have the eventual amazing discovery, but you also need to progress the current understanding further.

If we introduce a chance for the minor progress to lead to the same major advancement, it becomes a bit more simple for society to calculate the best allocation of researchers, but for any single person, the best option still remains to dedicate themselves to the small advancement.



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