Fortunately, we know plenty about diseases from other species—where we don’t need to be concerned with anthropic bias.
Yes, I think this is an important point. It’s similar to the idea that we can still figure out how lethal car crashes tend to be, if we look at other car crashes rather than the ones we’ve been in.
Interestingly, this sort of thing is perfectly “communicable”. If I have survived several car crashes, I can tell you about it; and you can similarly tell me about events that you have survived. We are all survivors, so it’s not quite like the “quantum immortality” scenario where you perceive yourself to be uniquely immune to death in a world of mortals. (For Taleb, it is an important point: we should not take advice from the “survivors” we will frequently see; we have to work hard to account for the many dead who will unfortunately not be giving us advice based on their experiences.)
Yes, I think this is an important point. It’s similar to the idea that we can still figure out how lethal car crashes tend to be, if we look at other car crashes rather than the ones we’ve been in.
Interestingly, this sort of thing is perfectly “communicable”. If I have survived several car crashes, I can tell you about it; and you can similarly tell me about events that you have survived. We are all survivors, so it’s not quite like the “quantum immortality” scenario where you perceive yourself to be uniquely immune to death in a world of mortals. (For Taleb, it is an important point: we should not take advice from the “survivors” we will frequently see; we have to work hard to account for the many dead who will unfortunately not be giving us advice based on their experiences.)