I’ll write a more detailed piece in the near future, less focused on the science which no-one seems to care about and more focussed on the semantics which everyone seems to care about.
I can see why you might find that frustrating. I think a lot of us, myself included, do think that the science is the most important part of the argument—but we don’t understand the science well enough to distinguish true arguments from false ones, in this domain.
I don’t have the proper expertise to evaluate your claims about pain receptors properly, but I do have the proper expertise to conclude that SWP calling their opponents “irrational, evil, or both” is bad, and that this correlates with shoddy reasoning everywhere else, including the parts I don’t understand. Thus, there’s a limit to how much I can update even from an incredibly strong neurological takedown, if that takedown requires knowledge of neurology that I don’t have in order to fully appreciate its correctness.
So, in terms of what we care about, think of it less as “How many bits of information should this point be worth” and more “How many bits of information can your audience actually draw from this piece of information?”
I’ll write a more detailed piece in the near future, less focused on the science which no-one seems to care about and more focussed on the semantics which everyone seems to care about.
I can see why you might find that frustrating. I think a lot of us, myself included, do think that the science is the most important part of the argument—but we don’t understand the science well enough to distinguish true arguments from false ones, in this domain.
I don’t have the proper expertise to evaluate your claims about pain receptors properly, but I do have the proper expertise to conclude that SWP calling their opponents “irrational, evil, or both” is bad, and that this correlates with shoddy reasoning everywhere else, including the parts I don’t understand. Thus, there’s a limit to how much I can update even from an incredibly strong neurological takedown, if that takedown requires knowledge of neurology that I don’t have in order to fully appreciate its correctness.
So, in terms of what we care about, think of it less as “How many bits of information should this point be worth” and more “How many bits of information can your audience actually draw from this piece of information?”