I’ll write down a long list of questions. I think they are useful. If you don’t like them all because they are too much I would certainly like to keep data about spaced repetition software usage. The question from last year was good.
I would specifically like to have the bolted questions included. With them we could cut the question that asks for self identification as vegetarian.
Given the absence of perfect information our justice system has to convict a few innocent people. Where the optimum of the ratio between guilty going free and innocent getting sentenced?
X guilty going free for one innocent being arrested. What’s your X?
Morality Questions:
How morally problematic are on a scale of 1 to 5 the following actions:
1) Eating animal products
2) Discriminating against a person based on their gender
3) Abortion at 3 month of age
4) Abortion at 7 month of age
5) Not voting in a national election
6) Rerouting a trolley car to kill one person instead of five.
Options:
today, yesterday, 2 to three days ago, up to a week ago, up to a month ago, up to three month ago, up to a year ago, up to three years ago, up to ten years ago, more than ten years ago, never
+++
When was the last time you read a scientific paper beyond the abstract that was work related?
When was the last time you read the abstract of a scientific paper that was work related?
When was the last time you read the abstract of a scientific paper that wasn’t work related?
When was the last time you read a scientific paper that wasn’t work related?
When was the last time you read a science textbook?
When was the last time you used spaced repetition software (Anki, Memosyne, Supermemo etc.)?
When was the last time you made an effort to record personal data for future analysis?
When was the last time you took a Vitamin D supplement?
When was the last time you took a multivitamin supplement?
When was the last time you took a Iron supplement?
When was the last time you took a Creatine supplement?
When was the last time you took a Adrafinil/Modafinil supplement?
When was the last time you drunk alcohol?
When was the last time you smoked?
When was the last time you meditated?
When was the last time you prayed?
When was the last time you got the flu vaccine?
When was the last time you ate flesh?
When was the last time you went the gym?
When was the last time you went jogging?
When was the last time you went dancing?
When was the last time you exercised in any form?
When was the last time you drove a bicycle?
When was the last time you drove a car?
When was the last time you used public transportation?
When was the last time you donated to charity?
How often do you exercise on average per week?
{Enter number}
How often do you eat on average meat per week?
{Enter number}
(this question allows together with the “When was the last time you ate flesh?” question allows us to to see to what extend people lie to themselves—are sub groups who score higher on the calibration questions better able to estimate their average meat consumption?)
I like the moral rating questions, but I think they should have a scale that includes both positive and negative values. Asking “how good or bad is X?” will get more honest answers than “how good is X?” or “how bad is X?”.
The core things I care about isn’t direct honesty. I want to see how the difference in judging eating animals translates into rating of how much animals the person eats. That means I need a big scale where a lot of people can answer that eating animals isn’t ideal but not that big of a deal. I also don’t know that anyone argues that humans have a moral obligation to eat animals.
On the other hand in the case of rerouting trolley cars a two sided scale seems important.
Given the absence of perfect information our justice system has to convict a few innocent people. Where the optimum of the ratio between guilty going free and innocent getting sentenced? X guilty going free for one innocent being arrested. What’s your X?
That depends on which crime we’re talking about—somewhere around 10^6 for illicit drug use, 10^3 for shoplifting, and 10^0 for murder.
When was the last time you used spaced repetition software (Anki, Memosyth, Supermemo etc.)?
Does Duolingo count?
When was the last time you took a Vitamin D supplement?
Given that you also ask about multivitamins, I guess you mean ‘a vitamin D supplement not as part of a multivitamin’, but you might want to say it explicitly.
When was the last time you smoked?
Do e-cigs count?
Language nitpicks: “eat meat [not flesh]”, “ride [not drive] a bike”.
Given that you also ask about multivitamins, I guess you mean ‘a vitamin D supplement not as part of a multivitamin’, but you might want to say it explicitly.
Whether it’s bundled isn’t that important. On the other hand what’s interesting would be the dose. But that add another question.
FYI, when I read your abortion questions I was unsure whether you were counting months post conception or post birth. Timing of pregnancy is more often discussed as trimesters or weeks.
“After-birth abortion” turns up sometimes in thought experiments and philosophy papers, and my prior on weird thought experiments turning up on lw is pretty high.
Actually, I remember hearing someone mention that in general LWers are more okay with Infanticide (or post-birth abortion if you prefer) than the average population. The reasoning, I assume, being that their self-awareness is more similar to animals than to a human adult and that you aren’t really destroying a full human consciousness. I don’t remember where it was posted, but i do remember it sounding like someone was summarizing LW survey results.
Basically, what I’m saying is that I wasn’t sure either given the phrasing, since I’ve heard this kind of thing discussed before on LW.
Yeah, the infanticide thing is a classic Peter Singer bit which I imagine a lot of people on Less Wrong have heard and considered before. I think the standard counterargument is that we need a good Schelling fence for when it’s okay to kill people—pro-life folks would argue that it should be at conception or something, pro-choice folks would say it should be at birth, but so far nobody’s come up with any reasonable one that comes after that. So infanticide should be disallowed for societal reasons, even if we allow that it might be acceptable in various hypothetical scenarios.
pro-life folks would argue that it should be at conception or something, pro-choice folks would say it should be at birth, but so far nobody’s come up with any reasonable one that comes after that
That’s very much a description of the US landscape of memes. In the EU the situation is different as our abortions laws are made by elected parliaments.
In most EU states an abortion at 7 months (or 28 weeks) is illegal in the US it’s legal. I haven’t meet anyone in Germany who argued that Germany should allow abortion in more cases and have birth as the schelling fence.
Curiously, in some rare cases and under certain very specific circumstances it is more than just a thought experiment (the paper you have linked also briefly mentions it), although it is thought of as a special case of euthanasia rather than an unusual kind of abortion.
The Dutch euthanasia laws require people to ask for euthanasia themselves (voluntary euthanasia), and it is legal for people of 12 years and older. In the Netherlands, euthanasia remains technically illegal for patients under the age of 12.
[...]
In 2005 a review study was undertaken of all 22 reported cases between 1997 and 2004.[7] All cases concerned newborns with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. In all cases, at least 2 doctors were consulted outside the medical team. In 17 of 22 cases, a multidisciplinary spina bifida team was consulted. All parents consented to the termination of life; in 4 cases they explicitly requested it. The mean time between reporting of the case and the decision concerning prosecution was 5.3 months. None of the cases led to prosecution. The study concluded that all cases of active termination of life reported were found to be in accordance with good practice.
Hey, Peter Singer is pretty good. Even if you don’t agree with all his ideas, his reasoning is refreshingly clear and concrete for a philosopher. If you haven’t read Practical Ethics, I strongly recommend it.
Timing of pregnancy is more often discussed as trimesters or weeks.
It might be one of those Europe vs US (or maybe continental Europe vs Anglosphere) things—pregnancies are usually measured in months here in Italy too.
I’ll write down a long list of questions. I think they are useful. If you don’t like them all because they are too much I would certainly like to keep data about spaced repetition software usage. The question from last year was good.
I would specifically like to have the bolted questions included. With them we could cut the question that asks for self identification as vegetarian.
Given the absence of perfect information our justice system has to convict a few innocent people. Where the optimum of the ratio between guilty going free and innocent getting sentenced? X guilty going free for one innocent being arrested. What’s your X?
Morality Questions:
How morally problematic are on a scale of 1 to 5 the following actions:
1) Eating animal products
2) Discriminating against a person based on their gender
3) Abortion at 3 month of age
4) Abortion at 7 month of age
5) Not voting in a national election
6) Rerouting a trolley car to kill one person instead of five.
Options: today, yesterday, 2 to three days ago, up to a week ago, up to a month ago, up to three month ago, up to a year ago, up to three years ago, up to ten years ago, more than ten years ago, never +++
When was the last time you read a scientific paper beyond the abstract that was work related?
When was the last time you read the abstract of a scientific paper that was work related?
When was the last time you read the abstract of a scientific paper that wasn’t work related?
When was the last time you read a scientific paper that wasn’t work related?
When was the last time you read a science textbook?
When was the last time you used spaced repetition software (Anki, Memosyne, Supermemo etc.)?
When was the last time you made an effort to record personal data for future analysis?
When was the last time you took a Vitamin D supplement?
When was the last time you took a multivitamin supplement?
When was the last time you took a Iron supplement?
When was the last time you took a Creatine supplement?
When was the last time you took a Adrafinil/Modafinil supplement?
When was the last time you drunk alcohol?
When was the last time you smoked?
When was the last time you meditated?
When was the last time you prayed?
When was the last time you got the flu vaccine?
When was the last time you ate flesh?
When was the last time you went the gym?
When was the last time you went jogging?
When was the last time you went dancing?
When was the last time you exercised in any form?
When was the last time you drove a bicycle?
When was the last time you drove a car?
When was the last time you used public transportation?
When was the last time you donated to charity?
How often do you exercise on average per week? {Enter number}
How often do you eat on average meat per week? {Enter number}
(this question allows together with the “When was the last time you ate flesh?” question allows us to to see to what extend people lie to themselves—are sub groups who score higher on the calibration questions better able to estimate their average meat consumption?)
I like the moral rating questions, but I think they should have a scale that includes both positive and negative values. Asking “how good or bad is X?” will get more honest answers than “how good is X?” or “how bad is X?”.
You are probably right.
The core things I care about isn’t direct honesty. I want to see how the difference in judging eating animals translates into rating of how much animals the person eats. That means I need a big scale where a lot of people can answer that eating animals isn’t ideal but not that big of a deal. I also don’t know that anyone argues that humans have a moral obligation to eat animals.
On the other hand in the case of rerouting trolley cars a two sided scale seems important.
“flesh” feels like a gratuitously loaded term. Is there any reason for that question not to simply be “when was the last time you ate meat?”
I have no problem with changing it to meat.
That depends on which crime we’re talking about—somewhere around 10^6 for illicit drug use, 10^3 for shoplifting, and 10^0 for murder.
Does Duolingo count?
Given that you also ask about multivitamins, I guess you mean ‘a vitamin D supplement not as part of a multivitamin’, but you might want to say it explicitly.
Do e-cigs count?
Language nitpicks: “eat meat [not flesh]”, “ride [not drive] a bike”.
I would prefer not counting it.
Whether it’s bundled isn’t that important. On the other hand what’s interesting would be the dose. But that add another question.
FYI, when I read your abortion questions I was unsure whether you were counting months post conception or post birth. Timing of pregnancy is more often discussed as trimesters or weeks.
I don’t think abortion post birth is a thing. If it’s easier to understand I have no issue with changing it to 12 weeks and 28 weeks.
“After-birth abortion” turns up sometimes in thought experiments and philosophy papers, and my prior on weird thought experiments turning up on lw is pretty high.
Actually, I remember hearing someone mention that in general LWers are more okay with Infanticide (or post-birth abortion if you prefer) than the average population. The reasoning, I assume, being that their self-awareness is more similar to animals than to a human adult and that you aren’t really destroying a full human consciousness. I don’t remember where it was posted, but i do remember it sounding like someone was summarizing LW survey results.
Basically, what I’m saying is that I wasn’t sure either given the phrasing, since I’ve heard this kind of thing discussed before on LW.
Yeah, the infanticide thing is a classic Peter Singer bit which I imagine a lot of people on Less Wrong have heard and considered before. I think the standard counterargument is that we need a good Schelling fence for when it’s okay to kill people—pro-life folks would argue that it should be at conception or something, pro-choice folks would say it should be at birth, but so far nobody’s come up with any reasonable one that comes after that. So infanticide should be disallowed for societal reasons, even if we allow that it might be acceptable in various hypothetical scenarios.
That’s very much a description of the US landscape of memes. In the EU the situation is different as our abortions laws are made by elected parliaments.
In most EU states an abortion at 7 months (or 28 weeks) is illegal in the US it’s legal. I haven’t meet anyone in Germany who argued that Germany should allow abortion in more cases and have birth as the schelling fence.
Curiously, in some rare cases and under certain very specific circumstances it is more than just a thought experiment (the paper you have linked also briefly mentions it), although it is thought of as a special case of euthanasia rather than an unusual kind of abortion.
[...]
Well Peter Singer supports it and for some bizarre reason he is considered a moral authority by many lesswrongers.
Hey, Peter Singer is pretty good. Even if you don’t agree with all his ideas, his reasoning is refreshingly clear and concrete for a philosopher. If you haven’t read Practical Ethics, I strongly recommend it.
I’m aware that Singer basically supports the policy. I’m however not aware that he choses those semantics.
It might be one of those Europe vs US (or maybe continental Europe vs Anglosphere) things—pregnancies are usually measured in months here in Italy too.