Map and Territory
I'm not sure whether it's good to speak about that topic in such binary terms. Korzybski speaks about consciousness of abstraction when he came up with "the map is not the territory".
If you have an issue like "The amount of autism increased" you have multiple layers.
1) The reality of what happens in humans in physical reality
2) How many fit into the cluster that motivates the label of autism?
3) How many fit into the operationalized concept that's written into the DSM?
4) How many people actually get diagnosed with autism?
For rational thinking it's often very useful to keep more than two layers apart at the same time.
In the interview with Rachel Haywire for example you discuss the statistic whether 1 in 5 college woman are raped by just focusing on two layers. The number of 20% of college woman and then the physical reality. Given the kind of definition that used frequently by the advocates that every act of sex where the woman didn't explicitely consent is rape, I don't have any trouble believing the 20%. I think that's an instance where conscious of abstration is very important and simply thinking in terms of physical reality and one mental map and the extend to which that map is accurate leads to bad thought.
It leads to the reasoning error that you two conclude that advocates don't really believe in that number. I did have discussions on facebook with a LW-affiliated people who does believe the number and think that the indicience rate in her circle of friends is higher than that (and even with a more straightforward definition of rape).
I'm not sure whether it's good to speak about that topic in such binary terms.
I have found it personally useful because it reminds me of the difference between what's going on in my brain and the rest of reality. But I agree with you that it's not binary when the issue is, as with autism, human brains.
Given the kind of definition that used frequently by the advocates that every act of sex where the woman didn't explicitely consent is rape, I don't have any trouble believing the 20%
Yes, but they are using words in ways that would confuse people no...
I've started a podcast called Future Strategist which will focus on decision making and futurism. I have created seven shows so far: interviews of computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy, LW contributor Gleb Tsipursky, and artist/free speech activist Rachel Haywire, and monologues on game theory and Greek Mythology, the Prisoners' Dilemma, the sunk cost fallacy, and the Map and Territory.
If you enjoy the show and use iTunes I would be grateful if you left a positive review at iTunes. I would also be grateful for any feedback you might have including suggestions for future shows. I'm not used to interviewing people and I know that I need to work on being more articulate in my interviews.