FAWS comments on Less Wrong NYC: Case Study of a Successful Rationalist Chapter - Less Wrong

137 Post author: Cosmos 17 March 2011 08:12PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_M 19 March 2011 12:35:49AM *  5 points [-]

If Eliezer's example isn't clear enough, here's another one.

"I'm worried about X."

Non-rationalist: "I've told you a million times, that's not gonna happen! Why can't you trust me?"

Rationalist: "Ok, let's go to Wikipedia, get some stats, and do the expected value calculation. Let me show you how unlikely this is."

Just curious: what would be a concrete example of an X that would provide for a realistic exchange that fits this pattern?

Comment author: FAWS 19 March 2011 12:47:13AM *  14 points [-]

World-destroying black hole caused by LHC. Autism through vaccination. Cancer from low intensity radio waves (i.e. a cell phone rather than a radar station). A meteorite hitting your house. A plane crashing into your house if you don't live in a landing vector of an airport. Terrorists capturing the plane you are on if you fly rarely.

Comment author: grobstein 24 March 2011 08:48:09PM 3 points [-]

Which of these is a major stressor on romantic relationships?

Comment author: Cyan 24 March 2011 09:06:43PM 2 points [-]

Not that it's happened to me, but I can easily see "autism through vaccination" fitting into the scenario.

Comment author: jkaufman 21 October 2011 08:55:46PM 0 points [-]

How much we should have been worried about a world destroying black hole as an effect of the LHC sounds hard to determine from wikipedia stats. Would you just look at "how often do people say that scientists are going destroy the world, and how often are they right"?

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