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Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
21–30 of 34 posts
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#22I’ll check the comments here later and hopefully someone will have told me whether this is safe to read.
It's safe to read, you have to read it immediately.
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#23I'm not sure if it would be classed as a "neuropsychological hazard" but one form of information hazard I encountered in recent years is true information that requires a finessed understanding of both risk and psychology to not act rashly upon it. For example, let's say you get a brain scan out of curiosity only. A small aneurysm is detected with a confidence of 95%, and said aneurysm, if real, has an estimated annua…
I'm not sure if this is directly related, but: I have PTSD & OCD, and when I peruse Google Scholar for information about toxicology, or the effects of air pollution on the brain, or how cats potentially carry T. Gondii & can infect you, or how we absorb things such as BHT transdermally through our hands from holding a cars polymer steering wheel, et cetera; I feel that it fuels my mental illness in a great way. If I…
Would it help if you had the balancing knowledge that washing your hands for 10+ minutes is bad for them, causes inflammation, and that that also probably hurts your brain? You really can't win, honestly, life is about hitting that sweet spot in-between trying and giving up.
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#24I'm not sure if it would be classed as a "neuropsychological hazard" but one form of information hazard I encountered in recent years is true information that requires a finessed understanding of both risk and psychology to not act rashly upon it. For example, let's say you get a brain scan out of curiosity only. A small aneurysm is detected with a confidence of 95%, and said aneurysm, if real, has an estimated annua…
I have a child with an anxiety disorder, and whenever he learns new information about any potential harm it completely throws him out of whack for a week or two. He's getting better with treatment, but he's also getting to the age where current events are part of the school curriculum, so it's a bit tense from a parenting point of view to see which one will win out in terms of him having a healthy childhood.
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if this is directly related, but: I have PTSD & OCD, and when I peruse Google Scholar for information about toxicology, or the effects of air pollution on the brain, or how cats potentially carry T. Gondii & can infect you, or how we absorb things such as BHT transdermally through our hands from holding a cars polymer steering wheel, et cetera; I feel that it fuels my mental illness in a great way. If I…
Would it help if you had the balancing knowledge that washing your hands for 10+ minutes is bad for them, causes inflammation, and that that also probably hurts your brain? You really can't win, honestly, life is about hitting that sweet spot in-between trying and giving up.
If this were true, then it would help, but I doubt it.
The ideal is to give up on timewasting/unimportant activities(Quadrants 3&4 on Eisenhower Matrix) and try/begin important activities(Q1&2).
It is incredibly challenging, to accept uncertainty & to do what you are SURE is important & will result in a positive outcome.
If I run for 30 minutes every day then I KNOW that it is beneficial to my health. I am certain. My OCD will ruin it by suggesting that I could breathe polluted air, et cetera. By that suggestion alone, I will not run.
It's a strange dysfunction of your brains executive/decision ability. I value what I am not certain of MORE than what I am certain of.
It is my goal to reverse that logic & when your brain is working against you, it feels as if you're swimming against a current.
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#26Searched for "noble lie" and found...nothing?
> Information hazard: A risk that arises from the dissemination or the potential dissemination of (true) information that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause harm.
I'm getting the sense there is an underlying loop in the reasoning to support this concept of hazard, where the direction of truth and information seems confused. There's also the question of the durability of a given state of truth.
What is the difference between information and fear? (e.g. data about potential information) When and how is information realized into truth, and in turn, consequences? Given we know truth is not a necessary or sufficient condition to have consequences, what are the qualities of information that does? If there were no truth, and in turn, only narratives and struggles for power, is an information hazard just something that hinders your will to power?
Admittedly I find Bostrom's writing mostly impenetrable because he seems to publish things he's still sounding out and I don't quite detect the hand of an editor, but while this idea of a hazard seems interesting, I don't see that he's testing for or discovering its existance so much as coining and supporting a meme. Perhaps I've just missed it.
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would it help if you had the balancing knowledge that washing your hands for 10+ minutes is bad for them, causes inflammation, and that that also probably hurts your brain? You really can't win, honestly, life is about hitting that sweet spot in-between trying and giving up.
If this were true, then it would help, but I doubt it. The ideal is to give up on timewasting/unimportant activities(Quadrants 3&4 on Eisenhower Matrix) and try/begin important activities(Q1&2). It is incredibly challenging, to accept uncertainty & to do what you are SURE is important & will result in a positive outcome. If I run for 30 minutes every day then I KNOW that it is beneficial to my health. I am certain. M…
It's not that strange, the fact that fear (bias towards inaction) and hope (bias towards action) seem slanted towards fear was commented on by Machiavelli. He explained that the most people, when confronted with uncertainty, will choose to do nothing. TBH, I don't think that most people go out for runs because they've weighed the air pollution against the health benefits of exercise, I think they do it because they feel like running and it doesn't reach the point of an executive-function thinking-about-the-pros-and-cons decision.
The inflammation thing is probably true. Here's a random study. Don't do anything that keeps you in a constant state of injury!
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#28I'm not sure if it would be classed as a "neuropsychological hazard" but one form of information hazard I encountered in recent years is true information that requires a finessed understanding of both risk and psychology to not act rashly upon it. For example, let's say you get a brain scan out of curiosity only. A small aneurysm is detected with a confidence of 95%, and said aneurysm, if real, has an estimated annua…
I'm not sure if this is directly related, but: I have PTSD & OCD, and when I peruse Google Scholar for information about toxicology, or the effects of air pollution on the brain, or how cats potentially carry T. Gondii & can infect you, or how we absorb things such as BHT transdermally through our hands from holding a cars polymer steering wheel, et cetera; I feel that it fuels my mental illness in a great way. If I…
> "...decontaminate your hands because the pollutant will absorb through your skin, into your blood, and then into your brain, and probably lower your IQ!"
It probably makes sense to move to less polluted areas and such, but I doubt excessive hand washing and those smaller habits would do much. I think we'd see a clear effect of successful people being compulsive handwashers? I mean, there are impurities in other things we can't control as well (air, water, food), so minimizing impurity from the hand only makes a very small difference. Still, brilliant people live in polluted places like LA (Terence Tao comes to mind!), various places in China, etc. so it doesn't seem to determine your outcome -- in fact, research shows the impact is small (but it does exist). Success is determined by the big factors and knowledge/wisdom-based choices, not being a few percent faster or more effective at solving puzzles -- unless you're in a particularly competitive job (maths competitions, professional athlete, professional chess player, etc.). Most mathematicians choose to explore different directions, different fields instead of competing head to head to solve single problems[1]. Our bodies and brains are also remarkably robust to small loads of impurities... in fact, one of the techniques of AI is to get rid of a few neurons here and there (DIY not advised). Hope this alleviates some concerns :)
[1] I got this from Maryam Mirzakhani interviews: https://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/15/maryam-mirzakhani-stanf...
Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#29Re: Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge [pdf]
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this were true, then it would help, but I doubt it. The ideal is to give up on timewasting/unimportant activities(Quadrants 3&4 on Eisenhower Matrix) and try/begin important activities(Q1&2). It is incredibly challenging, to accept uncertainty & to do what you are SURE is important & will result in a positive outcome. If I run for 30 minutes every day then I KNOW that it is beneficial to my health. I am certain. M…
It's not that strange, the fact that fear (bias towards inaction) and hope (bias towards action) seem slanted towards fear was commented on by Machiavelli. He explained that the most people, when confronted with uncertainty, will choose to do nothing. TBH, I don't think that most people go out for runs because they've weighed the air pollution against the health benefits of exercise, I think they do it because they f…
I appreciate this response & the link, thank you!