We need a Jerry Springer show for academia. And this could go on the pilot.

That convinced me that Diamond thinks he knows more than the experts. Where have we heard that before? Well, from the creationists. From the climate-change deniers.

And also from Taleb. One wonders what the author thinks of economist and banker 'experts'.

If there's a generalization to be made, it is that academic fields have reputations, and their reputations are independent of each other. Lots of people know better than symbolic AI experts. That's why there aren't very many pure symbolic AI experts anymore. Same goes for eugenicists, alchemists, and freudian psychotherapists. Lots of people know better than bankers. That's why I don't invest in stocks or read Paul Krugman/<insert economist here> anymore. Investigative journalism is going to die without ever having had formal experts.

Evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and literary critics I'm still undecided on. But this article/rant didn't actually teach me anything about anthropology. All it showed was that there's drama there just like anywhere else. It could have benefited from just focussing on Napoleon Chagnon and the Yanomamo, and leaving the Godwinning to the comment thread.