Who’s right? Who knows. It’s a fine opportunity to remain skeptical.
Bullshit. The ‘skeptical’ thing to do would be to take 30 seconds to think about the theory’s physical plausibility before posting it on one’s blog, not regurgitate the theory and cover one’s ass with an I’m-so-balanced-look-there’s-two-sides-to-the-issue fallacy.
TV-frequency EM radiation is non-ionizing, so how’s it going to transfer enough energy to your cells to cause cancer? It could heat you up, or it could induce currents within your body. But however much heating it causes, the temperature increase caused by heat insulation from your mattress and cover is surely much greater, and I reckon you’d get stronger induced currents from your alarm clock/computer/ceiling light/bedside lamp or whatever other circuitry’s switched on in your bedroom. (And wouldn’t you get a weird arrhythmia kicking off before cancer anyway?)
(As long as I’m venting, it’s at least a little silly for Kottke to say he’s posting it because it’s ‘interesting’ and not because it’s ‘right,’ because surely it’s only interesting because it might be right? Bleh.)
it’s at least a little silly for Kottke to say he’s posting it because it’s ‘interesting’ and not because it’s ‘right’
Yup, that’s the bit I thought made it appropriate for LW.
It reminded me of my speculations on “asymmetric intellectual warfare”—we are bombarded all day long with things that are “interesting” in one sense or another but should still be dismissed outright, if only because paying attention to all of them would leave us with nothing left over for worthwhile items.
But we can also note regularities in the patterns of which claims of this kind get raised to the level of serious consideration. I’m still perplexed by how seriously mainstream media takes claims of “electrosensitivity”, but not totally surprised: there is something that seems “culturally appropriate” to the claims. The rate at which cell phones have spread through our culture has made “radio waves” more available as a potential source of worry, and has tended to legitimize a particular subset of all possible absurd claims.
TV-frequency EM radiation is non-ionizing, so how’s it going to transfer enough energy to your cells to cause cancer?
Neither that nor the rest of your ’graf is a decisive argument against a causal connection. And unless you can increase my probability that there are no subsystems of the human body that can resonate at TV frequencies, I will continue in my tentative belief that TV-frequency EM might still cause a problem even if sub-kilohertz EM does not.
Very good point about, “It’s interesting,” though. “It’s interesting,” should be a good reason only to teenagers still learning to find pleasure in learning new science.
Bullshit. The ‘skeptical’ thing to do would be to take 30 seconds to think about the theory’s physical plausibility before posting it on one’s blog, not regurgitate the theory and cover one’s ass with an I’m-so-balanced-look-there’s-two-sides-to-the-issue fallacy.
TV-frequency EM radiation is non-ionizing, so how’s it going to transfer enough energy to your cells to cause cancer? It could heat you up, or it could induce currents within your body. But however much heating it causes, the temperature increase caused by heat insulation from your mattress and cover is surely much greater, and I reckon you’d get stronger induced currents from your alarm clock/computer/ceiling light/bedside lamp or whatever other circuitry’s switched on in your bedroom. (And wouldn’t you get a weird arrhythmia kicking off before cancer anyway?)
(As long as I’m venting, it’s at least a little silly for Kottke to say he’s posting it because it’s ‘interesting’ and not because it’s ‘right,’ because surely it’s only interesting because it might be right? Bleh.)
Yup, that’s the bit I thought made it appropriate for LW.
It reminded me of my speculations on “asymmetric intellectual warfare”—we are bombarded all day long with things that are “interesting” in one sense or another but should still be dismissed outright, if only because paying attention to all of them would leave us with nothing left over for worthwhile items.
But we can also note regularities in the patterns of which claims of this kind get raised to the level of serious consideration. I’m still perplexed by how seriously mainstream media takes claims of “electrosensitivity”, but not totally surprised: there is something that seems “culturally appropriate” to the claims. The rate at which cell phones have spread through our culture has made “radio waves” more available as a potential source of worry, and has tended to legitimize a particular subset of all possible absurd claims.
Neither that nor the rest of your ’graf is a decisive argument against a causal connection. And unless you can increase my probability that there are no subsystems of the human body that can resonate at TV frequencies, I will continue in my tentative belief that TV-frequency EM might still cause a problem even if sub-kilohertz EM does not.
Very good point about, “It’s interesting,” though. “It’s interesting,” should be a good reason only to teenagers still learning to find pleasure in learning new science.