Prometheus Science Bowl

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Golran
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Prometheus Science Bowl

Post by Golran »

I saw this come across the quizbowl subreddit, figured I'd post it over here as well. It looks like this group is doing a science bowl competition with some cash prizes and aiming to make the competition pretty similar to the National Science Bowl with a few rules slightly tweaked - https://prometheus.science/ is their website. Some LinkedIn snooping suggests that it's run by a junior at Foothill HS in Pleasanton, CA.
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nicole.
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Re: Prometheus Science Bowl

Post by nicole. »

According to their post on the hsquizbowl discord it is being funded by a major longtermist association, and has a special longtermism category. I guess that's how 3 high schoolers got all that funding for their tournament.
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Bates College '25
Kings College London, Winter '24 Semester
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Director of Outreach, American Quizbowl League, Prometheus Science Bowl, and Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance
Outreach and Technology, Florida Quiz Bowl Association
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jonpin
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Re: Prometheus Science Bowl

Post by jonpin »

At the very least, the website looks more put-together than the s c i e n c e c h a m p i o n s h i p was. But "for legal reasons, no, you can't know our sponsors" is... off-putting.
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benchapman
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Re: Prometheus Science Bowl

Post by benchapman »

A quick perusal of their website reveals that they are rather nakedly trying to push an agenda, which I don't believe should be the goal of a supposed academic competition. In addition to the whole "we won't reveal our sponsors" issue that Jon Pinyan brought up, there are a couple other troubling things on their website.
We will release a set of questions for reference closer to the competition date, and may purchase batches of relevant books to distribute to competitors at no charge, both of which will be announced by email and through Discord. Until then, the following resources may be helpful in learning more about longtermism:
(a list of some longtermism resources/books)
I think this makes it clear that the main purpose of this event is to spread longtermism, and the whole academic competition/cash prizes aspect is there to entice more teams to come and give the event a veneer of legitimacy. In addition:
The question categories for Prometheus Science Bowl will be Longtermism, Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Mathematics, and Physics.
The longtermism category that Nicole mentioned seems like a tactic to get teams that want to succeed at this event to read the resources that are being distributed.

Based on this, I think it's quite clear that this isn't a traditional academic competition, but rather an attempt to spread a harmful ideology and should be viewed as such.
Benjamin Chapman
Hunter College High School '21
University of Toronto '26
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