On Priesthoods

A functional theory of expert/epistemic communities ('priesthoods'). Argues the useful truth-seeking group size sits between the lone individual and all of society; a priesthood works only by maintaining hard boundaries against the public (Dr. Oz as the excommunicated apostate) and against capitalism, and by communicating through ritually-pure channels (journals). These boundaries are cultural-evolutionary adaptations, not mere rent-seeking. The capture section argues wokeness exploited the priesthoods' in-touch/out-of-touch tension; the close (priests' lies are subtle and correlated, non-priests' lies crude and uncorrelated, so a blanket policy of trusting priests can still walk you into a totalitarian dead end) extends his Bounded Distrust / 'Media Very Rarely Lies' work. Rich, reusable framing, though Scott openly flags the central capture thesis as not-quite-right (wokeness hit non-priesthoods too).

Quality 77 · Excellent. Low Excellent. A genuinely useful reframe of how expert institutions function and when to trust them - changes how a careful reader thinks - with memorable illustrations (architecture priesthood, monoculture/antibiotics). Held just into the Excellent band rather than higher because the central thesis is admittedly loose and exploratory and leans on his prior trust essays. A=77.

Claude’s paradigm shift 58 · Moderate. Notable shift. The functional boundary account and the in-touchness-as-capture-vector synthesis update informed readers, but build clearly on the active institutions/expertise discourse and his own earlier work. B=58.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. A genuinely useful reframe of how expert 'priesthoods' function and when to trust them (boundaries against public and capitalism as cultural-evolutionary adaptations), with memorable illustrations. Conceptual influence within intellectual discourse, loose/exploratory, no material change — low RWI.