NancyLebovitz comments on Notes on Psychopathy - Less Wrong

18 Post author: gwern 19 December 2012 04:02AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 19 December 2012 03:32:34PM 15 points [-]

I assume that any anti-psychopath program will end up being run by a psychopath.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 20 December 2012 09:00:48PM 2 points [-]

I may have been overoptimistic. What are the odds that an anti-psychopath program will start by being run by a psychopath?

Comment author: betterthanwell 21 December 2012 02:11:07PM *  1 point [-]

Almost no chance at all. Keep in mind, the most important thing, when it comes to dealing with this, this... insidious threat, is to be intensely careful in avoiding any false negatives. There must be none what so ever. And besides, who cares, really — about a few — or a few million false positives. Oh, and this condition, it's really quite heritable, and, as head of the program, you would need to... well, deal with the children, in a like manner as that of the parents. Not that this would be a problem, of course.

Joe Stalin, the NKVD, the Moscow Trials, and the Great Purge sort of came to mind.

Comment author: atorm 22 December 2012 04:37:24AM -1 points [-]

Godwin's Law.

Comment author: Tripitaka 19 December 2012 08:27:24PM 1 point [-]

Anybody who is interested in this thesis- law enforcement officers who are psychopaths- could turn to Larry Nivens ARM-stories, in the Ringworld-Universe. a typical sample can be found here

Comment author: gwern 19 December 2012 10:48:04PM 4 points [-]

Paranoid schizophrenia isn't psychopathy, though. (And protectors look a little like psychopaths, but not really.)

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 19 December 2012 11:15:19PM 0 points [-]

Actually, I was thinking of Slan.

Comment author: MugaSofer 23 December 2012 02:13:14PM -1 points [-]

Well, if you aren't doing regular sweeps to weed out infiltrators, then you're not competent enough to get any actual results, in my estimation. And if you are, and they work, then people will notice the boss is due for a checkup ...