Let us grant the two points you have made (of which I am, of course, well aware, as is pretty much anyone who knows what “Digg” or “Reddit” is). In fact let’s go further. Suppose that polyphasic sleep lets you do away with sleep entirely (you just blink once every four hours). Suppose furthermore that a single dose of the new drug lets you do completely without sleep without any ill effects for the rest of your life. Now look at this question and try to answer it:
“in general, does extreme lack of sleep tend to have any significant negative impact?”
The correct answer is still “yes”, because even if you add up the people who have taken the drug and who practice polyphasic sleep, they make up a small minority of the whole population. Since the statement begins with, “in general”, it fails to be contradicted by a small minority.
As for polyphasic sleep and the drug, you can of course prove me wrong but as far as I know, the field of social science gets little if any credit for the discovery and ongoing investigation of polyphasic sleep. From what I have read, the main investigation seems to be done by individual self-experimenters. At least, that’s what’s made it to the social sites. Similarly, drugs are developed by and large by scientists in the fields of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, etc., not social science, and clinical trials are performed by and large by doctors, not social scientists.
pdf23ds, I don’t think it’s odd.
Let us grant the two points you have made (of which I am, of course, well aware, as is pretty much anyone who knows what “Digg” or “Reddit” is). In fact let’s go further. Suppose that polyphasic sleep lets you do away with sleep entirely (you just blink once every four hours). Suppose furthermore that a single dose of the new drug lets you do completely without sleep without any ill effects for the rest of your life. Now look at this question and try to answer it:
“in general, does extreme lack of sleep tend to have any significant negative impact?”
The correct answer is still “yes”, because even if you add up the people who have taken the drug and who practice polyphasic sleep, they make up a small minority of the whole population. Since the statement begins with, “in general”, it fails to be contradicted by a small minority.
As for polyphasic sleep and the drug, you can of course prove me wrong but as far as I know, the field of social science gets little if any credit for the discovery and ongoing investigation of polyphasic sleep. From what I have read, the main investigation seems to be done by individual self-experimenters. At least, that’s what’s made it to the social sites. Similarly, drugs are developed by and large by scientists in the fields of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, etc., not social science, and clinical trials are performed by and large by doctors, not social scientists.