Similarly, now that I’ve read through Scott’s response to Hanson on medicine, I’d bet at upwards of 9 to 1 odds that Hanson is wrong about it.
I’m broadly sympathetic to this post. I think a lot of people adjacent to the LessWrong cluster tend to believe contrarian claims on the basis of flimsy evidence. That said, I am fairly confident that Scott Alexander misrepresented Robin Hanson’s position on medicine in that post, as I pointed out in my comment here. So, I’d urge you not to update too far on this particular question, at least until Hanson has responded to the post. (However, I do think Robin Hanson has stated his views on this topic in a confusing way that reliably leads to misinterpretation.)
Anyway, if the message someone received from Hanson’s writings on medicine was “yay Hanson”, and Scott’s response was “boo Hanson,” then I agree people should wait for Hanson’s rebuttal before being like “boo Hanson.”
But if the message that people received was “medicine doesn’t work” (and it appears that many people did), then Scott’s writings should be an useful update, independent of whether Hanson’s-writings-as-intended was actually trying to deliver that message.
But if the message that people received was “medicine doesn’t work” (and it appears that many people did), then Scott’s writings should be an useful update, independent of whether Hanson’s-writings-as-intended was actually trying to deliver that message.
The statement I was replying to was: “I’d bet at upwards of 9 to 1 odds that Hanson is wrong about it.”
If one is incorrect about what Hanson believes about medicine, then that fact is relevant to whether you should make such a bet (or more generally whether you should have such a strong belief about him being “wrong”). This is independent of whatever message people received from reading Hanson.
I’m broadly sympathetic to this post. I think a lot of people adjacent to the LessWrong cluster tend to believe contrarian claims on the basis of flimsy evidence. That said, I am fairly confident that Scott Alexander misrepresented Robin Hanson’s position on medicine in that post, as I pointed out in my comment here. So, I’d urge you not to update too far on this particular question, at least until Hanson has responded to the post. (However, I do think Robin Hanson has stated his views on this topic in a confusing way that reliably leads to misinterpretation.)
Rebuttal here!
Anyway, if the message someone received from Hanson’s writings on medicine was “yay Hanson”, and Scott’s response was “boo Hanson,” then I agree people should wait for Hanson’s rebuttal before being like “boo Hanson.”
But if the message that people received was “medicine doesn’t work” (and it appears that many people did), then Scott’s writings should be an useful update, independent of whether Hanson’s-writings-as-intended was actually trying to deliver that message.
The statement I was replying to was: “I’d bet at upwards of 9 to 1 odds that Hanson is wrong about it.”
If one is incorrect about what Hanson believes about medicine, then that fact is relevant to whether you should make such a bet (or more generally whether you should have such a strong belief about him being “wrong”). This is independent of whatever message people received from reading Hanson.
Yeah that’s fair! I agree that they would lose the bet as stated.