Ever used a modern touchpad device? All of IOS devices, and most of Android, modern BB, and Windows Mobile, depend on your having an energy aura for operation.


Bayesian analysis would suggest this is not true. Respect and popularity are worth more than reasoning on most issues, most of the time. But yes, it will lead us astray sometimes, that is true.

Direction of causation.

Are ideas (a) correct because they are majoritarian, or (b) majoritarian because they are correct?

Inasmuch as majority opinion has a better than random chance of being right, this is because correct ideas propagate by working, and incorrect ideas don't.

The flipside is that ideas with little, far removed, or distributed real world consequences do not disappear by this natural selection mechanism.

The consequences of being wrong about child sex are distributed, and many of them are removed.