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fubarobfusco comments on Competence in experts: summary - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 16 August 2012 02:53PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 16 August 2012 11:37:17PM -1 points [-]

Only if it makes the problem worse in a way that is not obvious to those who care about solving it. If the American Lung Association went around giving out cigarettes, people might eventually catch on.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 17 August 2012 10:04:48PM 0 points [-]

Not necessarily if it simultaneously produced research saying that cigarettes are good for your lungs.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 17 August 2012 10:21:28PM *  0 points [-]

Nah. Eventually some folks would decide enter the lung-doctoring profession because their parents had died of lung cancer and they actually wanted to cure it. People are not predictably 100% short-sighted and mercenary; the Prisoner's Dilemma is not the "Prisoner's Stupid Question – Obviously Everyone Defects All The Time."

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 18 August 2012 09:13:22PM 2 points [-]

Well, medicine was dominated by crackpots and charlatans for millennia and no one seems to have noticed until recently. For example, Mercury was used as a cure for all sorts of things for quite a long time. Not to mention how long bloodletting was used in medicine. I could give more examples but you get the idea.