I obviously believe there’s a value in having control groups Not only is that obvious but it is actually conveyed by my comment. It is a required premise for the assertion of altruism to make sense.
Not so, there exists altruism that is worthless or even of negative value. An all-altrustic CooperateBot is what allows DefectBots to thrive. Someone can altruistically spend all his time praying to imaginary deities for the salvation of mankind, and his prayers would still be useless. To think that altruism is about value is a map-territory confusion.
My comment observes that sacrificing one’s own (expected) health for the furthering of human knowledge is an act of altruism.
Your comment doesn’t just say it’s altruistic. It also tells him that if he doesn’t feel like being an altruist, that he should tell people that “placebos are for pussies”. Perhaps you were just joking when you effectively told him to insult altruists, and I didn’t get it.
Either way, if he defected in this manner, not just he’d be partially sabotaging the experiment he signed up for, he’d probably be sabotaging his future chances of being accepted in any other trial. I know that if I was a doctor, I would be less likely to accept you in a medical trial.
Your comment actively and directly sabotages human knowledge for your own political ends.
Um, what? I don’t understand. What deceit do you believe I committed in my above comment?
Wedrifid made a strategic observation that if a person cares more about their own health then the integrity of the trial it makes sense to find out whether they are on placebo and, if they are, leave the trial and seek other solutions. He did this with somewhat characteristic colorful language.
You then voted him down for expressing values you disagree with. This is a use of downvoting that a lot of people here frown on, myself included (though I don’t downvote people for explaining their reasons for downvoting, even if those reasons are bad). Even if wedrifid thought people should screw up controlled trials for their own benefit his comment was still clever, immoral or not.
Of course, he wasn’t actually recommending the sabotage of controlled trials—though his first comment was sufficiently ambiguous that I wouldn’t fault someone for not getting it. Luckily, he clarified this point for you in his reply. Now that you know wedrifid actually likes keeping promises and maintaining the integrity of controlled trials what are you arguing about?
Wedrifid made a strategic observation that if a person cares more about their own health then the integrity of the trial it makes sense to find out whether they are on placebo and, if they are, leave the trial and seek other solutions.
To me it didn’t feel like an observation, it felt like a very strong recommendation, given phrases like “Better yet”, “tell them placebos are for pussies”, “It isn’t your responsibility!”, etc
Even if wedrifid thought people should screw up controlled trials for their own benefit his comment was still clever, immoral or not.
Eh, not really. It seemed shortsighted—it doesn’t really give an alternate way of procuring this medicine, it has the possibilty to slightly delay the actual medicine from going on the market (e.g. if other test subjects follow the example of seeking to learn if they’re on a placebo and also abandon the testing, that forcing the thing to be restarted from scratch), and if a future medicine goes on trial, what doctor will accept test subjects that are known to have defected in this way?
Now that you know wedrifid actually likes keeping promises and maintaining the integrity of controlled trials what are you arguing about?
Primarily I fail to understand what deceit he’s accusing me of when he compares my own attitude to claiming that “A is made of fire” (in context meaning effectively that I said defectors will be punished posthumously go to hell; that I somehow lied about the repercussions of defections).
He attacks me for committing a crime against knowledge—when of course that was what I thought he was committing, when I thought he was seeking to encourage control subjects to find out if they’re a placebo and quit the testing. Because you know—testing = search for knowledge, sabotaging testing = crime against knowledge.
Basically I can understand how I may have misunderstood him—but I don’t understand in what way he is misunderstanding me.
Not so, there exists altruism that is worthless or even of negative value. An all-altrustic CooperateBot is what allows DefectBots to thrive. Someone can altruistically spend all his time praying to imaginary deities for the salvation of mankind, and his prayers would still be useless. To think that altruism is about value is a map-territory confusion.
Your comment doesn’t just say it’s altruistic. It also tells him that if he doesn’t feel like being an altruist, that he should tell people that “placebos are for pussies”. Perhaps you were just joking when you effectively told him to insult altruists, and I didn’t get it.
Either way, if he defected in this manner, not just he’d be partially sabotaging the experiment he signed up for, he’d probably be sabotaging his future chances of being accepted in any other trial. I know that if I was a doctor, I would be less likely to accept you in a medical trial.
Um, what? I don’t understand. What deceit do you believe I committed in my above comment?
Let me see if I can summarize this thread:
Wedrifid made a strategic observation that if a person cares more about their own health then the integrity of the trial it makes sense to find out whether they are on placebo and, if they are, leave the trial and seek other solutions. He did this with somewhat characteristic colorful language.
You then voted him down for expressing values you disagree with. This is a use of downvoting that a lot of people here frown on, myself included (though I don’t downvote people for explaining their reasons for downvoting, even if those reasons are bad). Even if wedrifid thought people should screw up controlled trials for their own benefit his comment was still clever, immoral or not.
Of course, he wasn’t actually recommending the sabotage of controlled trials—though his first comment was sufficiently ambiguous that I wouldn’t fault someone for not getting it. Luckily, he clarified this point for you in his reply. Now that you know wedrifid actually likes keeping promises and maintaining the integrity of controlled trials what are you arguing about?
To me it didn’t feel like an observation, it felt like a very strong recommendation, given phrases like “Better yet”, “tell them placebos are for pussies”, “It isn’t your responsibility!”, etc
Eh, not really. It seemed shortsighted—it doesn’t really give an alternate way of procuring this medicine, it has the possibilty to slightly delay the actual medicine from going on the market (e.g. if other test subjects follow the example of seeking to learn if they’re on a placebo and also abandon the testing, that forcing the thing to be restarted from scratch), and if a future medicine goes on trial, what doctor will accept test subjects that are known to have defected in this way?
Primarily I fail to understand what deceit he’s accusing me of when he compares my own attitude to claiming that “A is made of fire” (in context meaning effectively that I said defectors will be punished posthumously go to hell; that I somehow lied about the repercussions of defections).
He attacks me for committing a crime against knowledge—when of course that was what I thought he was committing, when I thought he was seeking to encourage control subjects to find out if they’re a placebo and quit the testing. Because you know—testing = search for knowledge, sabotaging testing = crime against knowledge.
Basically I can understand how I may have misunderstood him—but I don’t understand in what way he is misunderstanding me.