Matt Ridley

Author & Columnist · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

authorjournalistscientistpolitician@mattwridley ↗mattridley.co.uk ↗Wikipedia ↗

Matt Ridley is a British author, journalist, and former member of the House of Lords. He is the author of several books on science, evolution, and progress, and previously served as the science editor for The Economist.

29statements → 11claims → 7claims resolved → 71%fully supported → 3.59/5average certainty → 2.41/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 7said about them ↓

5 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 11 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 8 assertions · 3 opinions · 13 insights · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 11 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Matt argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Ridley: Smithsonian Refused for Decades to Credit Wright Brothers With Flight

“The Smithsonian Institution didn't want to give the Wright brothers credit for being the first people in the air for decades afterwards, and they had on display Langley's plane, which had been modified so that it would work after the event, but they were final…”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 15:44 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

100% certainty 3

83% certainty 4

none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Matt Ridley on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said29 What others said7 Episodes1

Everything Matt Ridley said on the Knowledge Project that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Ridley: Small, free-trading city-states generate the most innovation

“The general point you can make, and this applies to Renaissance Italy and ancient Arabia and, Ancient China, and so on as well is that city states tend to be innovative, that, that, that independent, relatively small political units that are very vigorous trad…”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 46:43 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

Assertion Partly supported

Ridley: Post-Revolution Americans used disguised preachers to steal British industrial secrets

“There's a fascinating period in history soon after the American Revolution when Americans were engaged in rampant industrial espionage to try and steal secrets of Britain's industry. And they sent all sorts of people over to prowl around pretending to be Preac…”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 51:23 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

Insight

Ridley: Zero-sum thinking stems from millions of years of ancestral biology

“We've spent millions of years thinking that your gain is my loss. It's only in the last a 100,000, in some ways, that's how well trade seems to be, On a massive scale with the division of labor and the collaborative system I described earlier, it's more like t…”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 54:15 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

Insight

Ridley: No single human knows how to manufacture a complete pencil

“There's an enormous network of people went into manufacturing this one pencil, and yet not one of them knows how to make a pencil. Not even the person working in the pencil factory. They just, because they don't know how to cut down a tree or grow coffee.”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 31:36 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

Assertion Supported

Ridley: Smallpox is the only major human disease eradicated by humanity

“We've only totally extinguished one major human disease, and that's smallpox, but boy, is that an important one.”

Matt Ridley Mar 23, 2021 ▶ 5:05 #107 Matt Ridley: Infinite Innovation

The other half of the tape: Matt Ridley's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 3 episodes on the Knowledge Project. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Sahil Lavingia 5 Naval Ravikant 1 Josh Wolfe 1