The things I was trying to convey here are that when we discover a new technology, it is tempting to get excited and think about all of the cool things we could do with it. Sugar seemed like a nice example here because it is very salient and visceral that it introduces more hedons into your life.
But it’s also possible that the long-term harms and n-th order effects make the new technology a (large) net-negative. Which I’d argue is the case with sugar.
Relatedly, it’s possible that something that seems innocent at first—like a little sugar to sprinkle on top of your coffee—is actually terrible. I agree that in the real world, sugar probably hasn’t crossed that bar. But I think that’s beside the point. From the perspective of the characters in this story, they don’t know that. I think the question at hand is moreso how they should be approaching the situation. And I think that it is appropriate for them to be a little paranoid and consider the possibility of sugar leading to terrible, terrible outcomes (along with other possibilities, such as it leading to “regular-bad” outcomes).
(All of that said, I don’t want to imply that I think this was a great post or anything. It’s moreso just an idea that I was messing around and having fun with.)
The things I was trying to convey here are that when we discover a new technology, it is tempting to get excited and think about all of the cool things we could do with it. Sugar seemed like a nice example here because it is very salient and visceral that it introduces more hedons into your life.
But it’s also possible that the long-term harms and n-th order effects make the new technology a (large) net-negative. Which I’d argue is the case with sugar.
Relatedly, it’s possible that something that seems innocent at first—like a little sugar to sprinkle on top of your coffee—is actually terrible. I agree that in the real world, sugar probably hasn’t crossed that bar. But I think that’s beside the point. From the perspective of the characters in this story, they don’t know that. I think the question at hand is moreso how they should be approaching the situation. And I think that it is appropriate for them to be a little paranoid and consider the possibility of sugar leading to terrible, terrible outcomes (along with other possibilities, such as it leading to “regular-bad” outcomes).
(All of that said, I don’t want to imply that I think this was a great post or anything. It’s moreso just an idea that I was messing around and having fun with.)