Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"The Crime of Curiosity" is a great way to put it, because we're already banned from questioning a lot of areas of science on most major tech platforms. I think the keyword that, in my mind, justifies the censorship here is "on most major tech platforms". Nobody is banning the discussion of these ideas in academic journals or HN or other places where curious people can go to discuss things - it's just making sure un…
That's such an arrogant, condescending statement. You're assuming that the general population is too stupid to be trusted with unfiltered information. But theories aren't dangerous. Actions are dangerous.
The Crime of Curiosity
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Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#62The first one is okay, as long as we're not talking about experiments that may be dangerous to the public. (which he seems to categorically reject for some reason, while home made bioterrorism is a real threat), the second one just doesn't follow at all.
Youtube has no realistic way to tell whether someone producing home-made science on youtube is a phd ex-nasa biohacker who follows best practices or just a complete quack who tries to sell dangerous fake remedies to vulnerable people. In practice the incentive to promote the latter probably far outweighs the former in number given the huge, generic audience on Youtube.
77% of the Youtube audience in the US are 17-25 years old, it's not some niche forum for engineers and the notion that they can read scientific papers and weed out legitimate science created at home from misinformation is absurd. The correct platform for something like this is a separate forum or community where enthusiasts meet with some barrier to entry, not the mass media.
I immediately question the motive of someone who promotes individual science or 'hacking' and seeks the largest mass media audience. I think the motive is much more straight forward. The author has a company that sells genetic engineering kits to people and by banning him from Youtube that impacts him financially. I personally think Biohacking and eccentric science is cool, but the appropriate audience for the kind of things he did, like treat himself with CRISPR or replace his entire microbiome to treat IBS is probably a community more self-selected than HN, not Youtube, which is mainstream television for young adults.
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#63The potential costs of systemically removing correct but controversial/fringe content are extremely detrimental to scientific progress in general. Sure, we remove thousands of obviously false and likely harmful posts, and there are cases to be made for why that may be good, but sometimes hidden within those thousands of posts was something that may have had a tremendously positive effect, but yet could not be separat…
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#64Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#65The author conflates two things. The right to biohack at home and Youtube's alleged obligation to let him broadcast his material. The first one is okay, as long as we're not talking about experiments that may be dangerous to the public. (which he seems to categorically reject for some reason, while home made bioterrorism is a real threat), the second one just doesn't follow at all. Youtube has no realistic way to tel…
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious to hear more about this. Is censorship "removal" or simply not getting votes? I've seen this concept generally addressed here before as "we don't censor, people just vote this way"
It was flagged by a mod.
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#67"Democratizing genetic engineering won’t suddenly unleash bioterrorism upon the world." How sure is he of that, and why? As a comparison, nuclear power has been of great utility for many countries, but I sure would not want to see it "democratized".
A motivated party can deploy and detonate several bombs in places with a lot of people any day, Covid rules notwithstanding. It's laughably/terrifyingly easy, the hardest part is building or buying the bombs. But you don't see it done regularly at all. Granted, a single nuclear or bio attack would affect way more people.
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"The Crime of Curiosity" is a great way to put it, because we're already banned from questioning a lot of areas of science on most major tech platforms. I think the keyword that, in my mind, justifies the censorship here is "on most major tech platforms". Nobody is banning the discussion of these ideas in academic journals or HN or other places where curious people can go to discuss things - it's just making sure un…
You can't actually discuss anything on HN that goes against the moderator's petty ideologies (or yc's profit motive) without being censored. Turn on show dead and take a scroll through nearly any topic. The irony is that many of the people who claim to be free-speech see nothing wrong with this platform blacklisting people who don't share in the groupthink.
However, good discussion ultimately requires respect for one another, and it seems maybe that thinking is not bilateral in your case. I’d encourage you to introspect on why you may be finding resistance wherever you look.
Re: The Crime of Curiosity
#69I wonder if there isn't a market for a COVID vaccine that the inevitable variants aren't resistant to. If you kept it to a small group of customers, it would maintain it's value and be worth $$$$ to them potentially.