Live data from Hacker News

Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic groups in the US

bmj.com

71–72 of 72 posts

Re: Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic groups in the US

#71
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with neuroscience is that they know nothing. For instance, it was considered true that neurons in the brain dont change and adapt, and then the concept of nueroplasticity came along, it was revolutionary. Twenty years later, a new study comes along and says that our brains are not as dynamic as we thought afterall. Human history is ripe with "experts" who were wrong, sometimes for centuries.

There are instances of where experts got it wrong. But to claim that neuroscientists know nothing is a bit arrogant. They certainly know more about the brain than you do (unless you too are a neuroscientist). I'm guessing you are not a neuroscientist. You hold a belief about decision making that is at odds with some experts and you have no expertise in the subject. A reasonable person would, at the very minimum, conc…

I would consider myself an amateur neuroscientist, in the sense that I frequently read blogs on the newest publications and findings, have a decent background in pharmacology literature.

Aside from FMRI scans, which give us a very broad picture of the brain, there is no way to really tell "whats going on". We have not developed that yet.

What neuroscientists currently know, aside from FMRI scans, is that certain behaviors are associated with certain genes. They can say, people who had gene X and went through life situation Y, were Z percent more likely to have a bad outcome. This is where the human behavior is deterministic idea (and "evidence") comes from. One specific expert on human behavior is Robert Sapolsky from stanford, who no doubt understands human behavior deeply. Almost all of his conclusions are driven from the method I exclaimed above. Everything is a statistical conclusion on how the average person behaves, which is a huge error in modern science

Re: Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic groups in the US

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not both?

Because treating something like a moral failing is hardly helping anyone. Instead treating it like a disease means actually helping people in the situation they are.

“Treating something like a disease” encourages one to not take ownership of the issue but instead provides a mechanism to play victim and give up. It’s victim mentality, denies the concept of freewill, and sets the stage for all sorts of slippery arguments.
Post reply on HN