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jimrandomh comments on You'll die if you do that - Less Wrong Discussion

15 Post author: sixes_and_sevens 12 May 2011 10:27AM

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Comment author: gwern 12 May 2011 03:38:57PM 4 points [-]

It doesn't look edible, or smell appetising, and isn't even especially harmful to ingest in most circumstances. Chances are that if I ever did want to eat silica gel, I'd probably have a damn good reason, and a lifetime of being told to not eat it is an obstacle to that.

People can be stupid. Shockingly stupid. Much like the infamous McDonald's coffee case (which turns out to be much more sensible and fair a verdict when you read the details), I would not be surprised if there were a reason for the warning.

Or do you read the Darwin Awards and think they must 'have a damn good reason' for what they did?

Comment author: jimrandomh 12 May 2011 04:30:48PM 16 points [-]

I would not be surprised if there were a reason for the warning.

Silica gel packets look a lot like the sugar packets people use to sweeten coffee. Sugar packets are mostly handled by tired people. If silica gel wasn't clearly labelled, a misplaced packet could be mistaken for sugar and poured into a drink. And since most people don't know what the words "silica gel" mean, a direct description could be mistaken for branding.

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