timtyler comments on Practical Advice Backed By Deep Theories - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 April 2009 06:52PM

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Comment author: prase 26 April 2009 02:37:56PM 2 points [-]

I agree that the theory is unconvincing. Roberts seems to argue that organisms have brain-regulated mechanism which force the organisms to eat more if the food is more easily available. Such behaviour could be beneficial because during famines the supplies would be later depleted, but the explanation smells of group selection - I suppose that especially during famines the individual who eats as much as possible and stores that as fat will have great advantage against more modest members of his group, not speaking about other species. Am I missing something?

Comment author: timtyler 26 April 2009 04:57:55PM 5 points [-]

Pop evo-psych stories are a marketing strategy for diets, not a real reason to follow one. Look at the paleo diet - which apparently promotes the ancestral state of malnourishment and dehydration, on the basis of an evo-psych story.

Diets are best evaluated by testing them, not by telling memorable stories about their origins.

Comment author: prase 27 April 2009 08:47:58AM 0 points [-]

Why evo-psych? Psychology has nothing to do with that.

Diets are, of course, evaluated by testing, but Roberts goes further and makes an explanation of his diet, and whether this explanation is consistent from evolutionary perspective is a relevant question.

Comment author: timtyler 27 April 2009 06:38:17PM 1 point [-]

Or, in my view, not as far, by promoting an almost totally-untested diet.