You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

FiftyTwo comments on Constructing fictional eugenics (LW edition) - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 October 2012 12:41AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (174)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 29 October 2012 06:50:01PM -2 points [-]

Your Doctor must love you.

Comment author: iceman 29 October 2012 07:14:56PM 0 points [-]

I think there's a difference between a professional who has a legal responsibility to act in your interests, and the government, which doesn't. It's a matter of incentives, and I'm going to attach much more weight to my doctor saying that I should do something for my own good than from a government worker.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 29 October 2012 07:41:49PM 2 points [-]

A more important difference is that I have a lot more choice in my doctor than in my government.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 30 October 2012 12:01:56AM 0 points [-]

I confess the example was facetious. But I still can't empathise with the intuitive dislike of interference. I understand there are pragmatic considerations (e.g. choosing a good doctor) but this seems to go beyond that to being a value in and of itself (thus the original example of it not being a utopia if its run by an interfering government).

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 01 November 2012 04:58:18PM 1 point [-]

Well it won't be. Without the threat of leaving the government has little incentive to intervene benevolently.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 November 2012 03:46:57PM 1 point [-]

I think there's a difference between a professional who has a legal responsibility to act in your interests, and the government, which doesn't.

Yes, it does. The difference is that you trust your doctor's competence, I suspect.