= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Jiro comments on Open thread, 23-29 June 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (190)
Successfully spreading the legend would keep people from playing with laser pointers, but would also lower the status of rationalists who aren't in on the plan, since they would object that there's no evidence this happened, but by hypothesis nobody would believe them. Furthermore, if you spread such rumors, you have little grounds to object the next time someone spreads a false rumor about a kid who recovered from illness using homeopathy (and you probably primed the general populace to believe such rumors anyway since you've trained them to believe things without evidence).
That's a general problem with spreading lies for a cause, of course.
I doubt it. Urban legends focusing on socially or at least parentally discouraged behavior are pretty common; witness the popular and long-lived one about the killer targeting teenagers who have sex with each other in their cars. They don't seem to deter many people, though.
Remember, by hypothesis we have kids with the resources to get dangerously powerful lasers and the will to use them. These aren't five-year-olds that can be cowed into good behavior by spinning a tale about the alligators that'll eat you if you go outside after dark; indeed, I didn't find that entirely convincing when I was five. You might even get people trying to match the legend's conditions just to see what'll happen; show of hands, who here tried to invoke Bloody Mary as a child by standing in front of a dark mirror and chanting her name?