From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Jun 27 2001 - 11:04:47 MDT
"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> I'd emphasize this. For example, my recent commentary on why
> I'm against GMO food labels. If the anti-GMO individuals
> actually *did* acquire sufficient molecular biology and medical
> knowledge to *really* evaluate the labels, their ROI would
> be *negative* because they would have to give up their cherished
> ideas that "natural" is better!
This invokes an inherently irrational definition of ROI - the desirability
of a belief that "natural is better" should be contingent on natural
actually *being* better. That is, for a rational being, the belief is not
desirable in itself, but is rather desirable because the belief is
currently the best available approximation to reality. Thus, a normative
anti-GMO protester (and how many of those do you see?) should evaluate the
possibility of being legitimately and correctly convinced that GMO foods
are better as a positive outcome.
Just a bit of Friendly pedantry...
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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