O.mg Cable • Hacker News Board

Re: O.mg Cable

#551

Post by MichaelZuo » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

IncRnd wrote: post #548

MichaelZuo wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

‘You can't predict unless you have the will to perform a prediction.’ That is a general claim that you wrote that I have shown is not correct unless you have an interpretation of the word ‘will’ that is so broad as to render your other statements somewhat meaningless. In fact you are the one creating the strawman since you dodged addressing the question. I have made no separate claims about my personal free will, or…

Thanks for pretending to be the arbitar of truth, but you are the one who responded to my comment (made to another), "If you don't accept that you have free will, than nothing you write or say has any meaning." It is now obvious you have no point other than wanting to debate words and are being intentionally obtuse. This is not a high school debate class, and I will no longer engage in your foolishness, since you hav…

Another strawman.

I’m not exactly sure why you think I would care so much about your opinions to be ‘the arbiter of truth’ for any topic. You’ve made claims that are clearly erroneous and I’ve been pointing them out to the passing reader, so they are not waylaid. I won’t comment on the correct interpretation of ‘free will’ since I myself don’t know, and decline to pretend to know.

Re: O.mg Cable

#552

Post by hashkb » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 2:50 PM UTC

jtsiskin wrote: post #516

hashkb wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is false. Most people will take advantage of any situation where they detect a low enough chance of consequences, regardleas of who is hurt. We act good because we don't want to be caught, embarrassed, or convicted and condemned. It's not that most people want to hurt others. It's just that most people care only for themselves. Source: reality.

I don’t think that is true. The ‘median’ person has empathy and care, and would not hurt someone even if they could be totally undetected - but there is a large skew, which makes this true for the ‘mean’ person and thus ‘reality’, if that makes any sense. As an example: a bowl of candy on Halloween with a “take 2 pieces only please” sign on it. Most people will only take 2. A few people will grab a handful. And one p…

This is false, too. Those bowls were always empty by the time I got to them.

Edit: ever been at a long line for the bathroom at a big concert or sporting event? Or driven on the roads? There's always someone cheating, often making it more dangerous or painful to be that median person.

Re: O.mg Cable

#553

Post by hashkb » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 2:52 PM UTC

chii wrote: post #526

jtsiskin wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that is true. The ‘median’ person has empathy and care, and would not hurt someone even if they could be totally undetected - but there is a large skew, which makes this true for the ‘mean’ person and thus ‘reality’, if that makes any sense. As an example: a bowl of candy on Halloween with a “take 2 pieces only please” sign on it. Most people will only take 2. A few people will grab a handful. And one p…

if you look at the iterated version of your example, you will see that everyone will tend towards being the guy who grabs the whole bowl, or risk missing out on the candy. Therefore, the parent poster's argument is actually true, even if the median person believes themselves to be empathetic.

Yes. I'm not saying we choose to be bad. I'm saying we sort of have to, and billionaires get the choice, and still choose to generally do more damage than than any of us will ever have the opportunity to attempt.

Re: O.mg Cable

#554

Post by hashkb » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 2:53 PM UTC

burnished wrote: post #479

hashkb wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is false. Most people will take advantage of any situation where they detect a low enough chance of consequences, regardleas of who is hurt. We act good because we don't want to be caught, embarrassed, or convicted and condemned. It's not that most people want to hurt others. It's just that most people care only for themselves. Source: reality.

Hey, we agree that most people don't want to hurt anyone! I think we're much closer to agreeing than you suspect. Now, we could quibble about whether people are more like to help you or victimize you and we could both be right. Or, we could observe that I'm correct about society functioning mostly because people don't mess with other people very much, you could chalk it up to friction and the lack of interest in othe…

I don't agree that society functions well, and I see people mess with each other almost constantly. Your reality seems nice.

Re: O.mg Cable

#555

Post by hashkb » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 2:58 PM UTC

stevetodd wrote: post #404

hashkb wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is false. Most people will take advantage of any situation where they detect a low enough chance of consequences, regardleas of who is hurt. We act good because we don't want to be caught, embarrassed, or convicted and condemned. It's not that most people want to hurt others. It's just that most people care only for themselves. Source: reality.

I’m sorry for the world you live in. It’s not that way for everyone everywhere. I hope you can find your way to some place better.

Me too! Thanks.