babblefrog comments on Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease - Less Wrong

236 Post author: Yvain 30 May 2010 09:16PM

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Comment author: babblefrog 31 May 2010 04:23:52PM 1 point [-]

How much of a statistical correlation would you require? Anything over 50%? 90%? 99%? I'd still have a problem with this. "It is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer." - Ben Franklin

Comment author: dclayh 31 May 2010 09:12:04PM 1 point [-]

An article by SteveLandsburg on a similar quote.

And a historical overview of related quotes.

Comment author: ocr-fork 31 May 2010 04:38:45PM 1 point [-]

How much of a statistical correlation would you require?

Enough to justify imprisoning everyone. It depends on how long they'd stay in jail, the magnitude of the crime, etc.

I really don't care what Ben Franklin thinks.

Comment author: babblefrog 31 May 2010 05:00:56PM 2 points [-]

Sorry, not arguing from authority, the quote is a declaration of my values (or maybe just a heuristic :-), I just wanted to attribute it accurately.

My problem may just be lack of imagination. How could this work in reality? If we are talking about groups that are statistically more likely to commit crimes, we already have those. How is what is proposed above different from imprisoning these groups? Is it just a matter of doing a cost-benefit analysis?

Comment author: ocr-fork 31 May 2010 10:26:02PM 0 points [-]

How is what is proposed above different from imprisoning these groups?

It's not different. Vladmir is arguing that if you agree with the article, you should also support preemptive imprisonment.