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CronoDAS comments on This Failing Earth - Less Wrong
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I see him as an eloquent crank. He's so far out from the mainstream that I can't really endorse anything he says, but he serves as a kind of sanity check, because he makes well crafted (and, sometimes, well-cited) arguments against things people usually take for granted.
(One complaint that I do have, however, is his focus on rising crime rates. The general historical trend in homicide rates has been a steady decrease.)
I agree with this. I think his writings reek of "dark side epistemology". He uses a lot of florid, non-precise, language filled with obscure references that seemed designed to instill reverence rather than educate.
The irony is that I agree with him about many things, but I can't stand him because he seems far too overconfident about the accuracy of his shocking claims.
Says the guy who posts on Less Wrong...
historical data of such a nature is worthless. if the ratio of recorded crime:crime changes how can you extract a meaningful trend? can you take into account the cost of living in areas vs the level of crime? (does it cost more or less today to buy yourself out of crime heavy areas?). trying to do induction over social data is one of the main things I'm in agreement with MM about. It's a waste of time. You can't isolate variables well enough to do proper regressions.
MM using crime as justification for widespread changes to society is one of the weird things about his position, taking into account his position on scientism in the social sciences.