Yes. Creating arbitrary assumptions that are in opposition to each other is not necessarily outright fallacious but it is certainly something that requires some significant justification. There is a rather large ‘arbitrariness’ overhead for assuming two contradictory measures of value in a way that happens to be convenient for a desired agenda that is above and beyond the arbitrariness of the assumptions considered separately.
The calculations and conclusions in this post are presented as shutting up and multiplying value when they can more realistically be considered a work of creative fiction. “17x” here would be better off replaced with “Over 9000″ which at least has the correct connotations of “completely arbitrary large number that indicates that I think the value is significant but is meaningless as a quantisation of anything”.
Unfortunately talking about the Virtuous Cause seems to turn off people’s critical reasoning capabilities but that only works when preaching to the already converted. AMF is an actually high value cause. It doesn’t need sloppy and misleading calculation in order to justify it. That way people who aren’t already true believers may accept the argument rather than discarding it at the first unreasonable assumption they encounter.
Yes. Creating arbitrary assumptions that are in opposition to each other is not necessarily outright fallacious but it is certainly something that requires some significant justification. There is a rather large ‘arbitrariness’ overhead for assuming two contradictory measures of value in a way that happens to be convenient for a desired agenda that is above and beyond the arbitrariness of the assumptions considered separately.
The calculations and conclusions in this post are presented as shutting up and multiplying value when they can more realistically be considered a work of creative fiction. “17x” here would be better off replaced with “Over 9000″ which at least has the correct connotations of “completely arbitrary large number that indicates that I think the value is significant but is meaningless as a quantisation of anything”.
Unfortunately talking about the Virtuous Cause seems to turn off people’s critical reasoning capabilities but that only works when preaching to the already converted. AMF is an actually high value cause. It doesn’t need sloppy and misleading calculation in order to justify it. That way people who aren’t already true believers may accept the argument rather than discarding it at the first unreasonable assumption they encounter.