181–190 of 204 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think he means based on the size of the effect it's unlikely to be a placebo.
right, but 50% of the effect of opiates is placebo, so we shouldn't be too surprised. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11207392
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I made no implication that contemporary rural life is superior or in any way comparable to historical rural life.
"...makes sense that cramming into cities with unnatural lights and disrupting biological rhythm would make them go haywire" Then what does this suggest? Why does "unnatural light" (ignoring that humans have built "unnatural light" fires for ~1.7 million years) make a brain go haywire, but not, say, clipping one's toenails? Or reading books, or sitting on chairs, or being blasted by radio waves, or running on treadmi…
Health effects of radio waves: https://www.fcc.gov/engineering-technology/electromagnetic-c...
Artificial light exposure and circadian rhythm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30311830
I'm saying exactly what I said - there are some aspects of an urban technological life that are harmful to the human body
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If that's the case, how would fasting work? Wouldn't it just reliably deprive you from nutrients hence give you a depression?
I don't know why, but there are a lot of people where fasting works for depression. Then there are ways of eating which seem to have an effect like low fodmaps. Etc.
A random walk may not get you out a bad situation, but staying put is strictly worse less likely to get you out.
What would a reinforcement learning agent do?
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Mental health isn't a strictly subjective experience though. You can measure days called-in-sick. You can measure suicide count. Cause and effect isn't necessary to reduce harm. You with me? It's nice to have certainly, but it is not required. Imagine that I am a friend of yours. I tell you that my child is depressed and the doctor suggests pill1, it makes my child more lethargic. We try pill2 and the depression is g…
This scientific paradigm only is able to describe a treatment, it fails to diagnose a specific cause
Which would you value in your medical care professional?
Measure what you value and optimize for it. Why do this devils advocate stuff?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...makes sense that cramming into cities with unnatural lights and disrupting biological rhythm would make them go haywire" Then what does this suggest? Why does "unnatural light" (ignoring that humans have built "unnatural light" fires for ~1.7 million years) make a brain go haywire, but not, say, clipping one's toenails? Or reading books, or sitting on chairs, or being blasted by radio waves, or running on treadmi…
Health effects of sedentary lifestyle "sitting in chairs" https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/the... Health effects of radio waves: https://www.fcc.gov/engineering-technology/electromagnetic-c... Artificial light exposure and circadian rhythm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30311830 I'm saying exactly what I said - there are some aspects of an urban technological life that are harmful to the…
I'm pretty confident that depression is not a result of air pollution, but rather that both air pollution and depression are results of industrialization. The problem is not chemical. The problem is how we live.
There is more than one variable in play. We can optimize wealth AND health.
(An aside: Your argument is a form of learned helplessness. I expect more from you. I am certain that in matters of business and your families well-being you are not so reductionist.)
What kinds of solutions would you like to see?
Wouldn't a cleaner observation be: "depression and suicide linked to the largest cities in new global study"?
The cleanest observation would be Everything is Correlated ( https://www.gwern.net/Causality ) and correlation is not a productive way of investigating the world.
If A causes B and B causes C then we can only say that A and C are correlated. If the average chain of causality is 4 long then the Bs outnumber the As and Cs.
Inductive (observation) evidence is more available than deductive (purely logical) evidence. Why limit yourself to only deductive evidence?
I don't have to resort to a chemistry lesson to convince you that drinking bleach would be very harmful, right? Can't I merely show you photos of bleach-bellied-corpses?
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This scientific paradigm only is able to describe a treatment, it fails to diagnose a specific cause
The value of a treatment can be measured in lives saved. Causes (where no treatment is implied) can only be measured in ink on paper. Which would you value in your medical care professional? Measure what you value and optimize for it. Why do this devils advocate stuff?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Health effects of sedentary lifestyle "sitting in chairs" https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/the... Health effects of radio waves: https://www.fcc.gov/engineering-technology/electromagnetic-c... Artificial light exposure and circadian rhythm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30311830 I'm saying exactly what I said - there are some aspects of an urban technological life that are harmful to the…
As far as I know, rural and suburban dwellers do have lightbulbs, computers, televisions, cell phones, and this time of year, brightly lit christmas trees. Is your position that there are more light bulbs in cities than the countryside? Do you have any evidence that that's meaningful? Seems like a bit of a stretch to me, that the external lights—easily blocked by window curtains—have any meaningful impact on health b…
Edit: I guess I'm being pedantic at this point. My personal position is industrial agriculture is failing rapidly and that the modern world will reconcile with the fact that either we will all starve, or learn how to farm again. I spend half the year working on an organic farm, and my life is immeasurably better than when I'm in the city (which is of course, only my personal subjective datum which and I realize how much HN hates anecdote as evidence)