orthonormal comments on Not Technically Lying - Less Wrong
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Comments (79)
I would be interested to see what people think of some other options:
4) "I'll tell you later." [Fails to answer the question; is neither a Technical Lie nor actively misleading; may lead the patient to believe it's a painkiller or similar anyway]
5) "I'm doing everything I can to help you; please don't distract me." [True statement and a request; may lead the patient to believe it's a painkiller or similar anyway]
6) "It's a 300-osmolarity isotonic solution of chloridated alkali metal." [Technobabble; the average patient will have no clue what this means. Unless I'm misusing chemical terms found on Wikipedia, it's completely accurate. Will probably discourage further questions, especially if stated rapid-fire in a curt tone.]
I think 'not actively misleading' is just another form of Not Technically a Lie. If you're saying X in the hope that it will lead them to believe a false statement Y, your statement is either a lie or a NTaL, regardless of how cleverly you construct X.