DavidV

October 11, 2011

Few people would openly admit that they prefer irrational treatments and doctors. But most people do in fact advocate irrational health practices – using pseudonyms for “irrational” as “holistic,” “alternative,” “homeopathic” and the deadly “natural.”

Medicine requires reason

The human body operates according to certain causal principles. If we wish to make a change in our health, we must understand some of those causal principles and act according to our understanding. To act without a rational basis is to disconnect our goals from their achievement. Irrationality does not guarantee failure — it just means that success, to the extent that it happens, will be due to other factors that our goals.

The study of human health is especially difficult

In the field of health, especially rigorous rationality is necessary for at least five reasons:

The human body will solve, or at least try to solve most problems on its own. This makes establishing causality due external factors quite difficult and introduces biases such as the placebo effect and the regression fallacy.
The body is very complex! Because it evolved over billions of years, the causal relationships in the body are extremely complex and interdependent.
For example, even if we know that the body has too little of a certain substance, taking that substance may: a: not do anything b: cause the body to produce even less of the substance or c: cause an unpredictable side effect. On the other hand, if the body has too much of something, then the solution may be to a: consume less of that substance b: consume more of that substance or c: the consumption has no relationship at all to the level of that substance.
It can be difficult to measure the extent to which medical problems are solved. While some things can be measured, many things, such as pain levels are very difficult to quantify.
It is difficult to isolate causal factors in human beings since changes in health take time to develop and we can’t control every factor during an experiment or dissect human subjects when it is over.
Humans tend to be irrational when it comes to their own mortality! We fear death, leading us to irrational over or under spending on health as well as being especially vulnerable to all the logical fallacies.

In medicine, rationality requires quality science research

There is a name for the field that applies rigor to the discovery of facts about nature: science. Science has been so successful in improving the state of human knowledge that many irrational, anti-scientific quacks have begun to use the term “scientific” to describe anti-scientific practices and ideas. In response to this, the medical community has come up with a term which identifiers the distinguishing aspect of rationality: “evidence based medicine.” This phrase is a necessary redundancy that identifies the essential characteristic of science: that it is based on sensory evidence. The alternative to non-evidence based science is not science at all, but emotionalism – “I feel it is true, so it must be.”

In the last hundred years, we have discovered certain practices for ensuring the conclusions of our medical experiments are valid. We know experimentally that observing these practices leads to more accurate conclusions. Let me emphasize that: the truth of medical claims is strongly correlated with the degree to which experiments follow accepted scientific standards. There are a number of objective scales for measuring the quality of an experiment.

Five characteristics of quality medical studies

Here is the essence of quality medical studies:

The experiment and its results are fully described in enough detail to reproduce and compare the results
There is a randomized control group
The selection of control subjects is double blind
The methods of randomization and blinding are accurately described and appropriate
There is a description of withdrawals and dropouts.

How to judge health claims

Unfortunately, it is difficult to design good experiments and more difficult still to reach firm conclusions from most experiments. In the legitimate (“evidence-based”) medical community, the degree to which practitioners adhere to the principles varies greatly – but they at least try. Fortunately, in the “quack community,” while there is sometimes the pretense of evidence, basic scientific principles are so grossly violated and ignored that is becomes easy to distinguish fraud from legitimate science.

Here is an important point: it is difficult to make firm conclusions in medicine. But when valid scientific principles are not followed, it is easy to conclude that no valid conclusion can be reached. In other words, you can’t always be sure what’s good for you, but you can be sure when someone is talking nonsense.

Another important point: When someone makes irrational health claims, it does not mean that those claims are false. It just means those claims were not derived by rational (scientific) principles, and so we cannot anything about their truth – we can only ignore them as arbitrary. It is as if someone claimed invisible, undetectable pink unicorn in the sky - that which cannot be proven or disproved can only be dismissed.

How can we apply these ideas? It so happens that most health claims in the non-scientific media and many health “practitioners” are unscientific. This does not mean that they are wrong, or that people don’t feel helped by them. It means that their claims have no connection to reality.

In some cases, the practices that quacks suggest are helpful — but not for the reasons they identify. More importantly, in all cases following rational, scientific principles leads increases the likely hood of successful outcomes over quackery (aka emotionalism).

To conclude, to judge whether a medical claim is legitimate or arbitrary nonsense, check whether:

It is based on quality experiments
It is consistent with medical consensus (of evidence-based medicine)
The certainty of the claim is well-established (by numerous studies, systematic reviews, etc

Further Reading

“Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre
Ben Goldcare at TED: Battling Bad Science

TruthJusticeAndTheAmericanWay?d=yIl2AUoC

TruthJusticeAndTheAmericanWay?i=T3UQbYmm

Cross-posted from Metablog

September 27, 2011

I simply endorse trying to be part of the process, and not leaving the of picking candidates to the MSM and conservatives with plenty of time on their hands.

This is a false dichotomy. Real intellectual activism is a million times more effective than wasting time and/or money on political campaigns. I will do more good with this forum than millions donated to Ron Paul.

September 27, 2011

A defeatist attitude easily becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

You are delusional. That's OK. 99.99% of the electorate is as well.

There are three kinds of politician delusions:

1: Most voters are delusional about their candidate's chances of winning.

2: But more fundamentally, almost all voters are delusional about the ability of a politician to use political coercion to do good.

Almost all people suffer from the first two delusions. But the third is common as well:

3: The delusion that one can use the political system to impose limits on the political system.

For more on the third delusion, see http://www.dailypaul.com/139698/stefan-molyneux-on-ron-pauls-philosophies

September 26, 2011

The Google Adwords account for Objectivism Online has been stale lately and I could use someone to manage it.

September 26, 2011

Let's brainstorm some ideas for increasing participation on this website.

What can we/I do promote the website and make it more attractive to people?

September 26, 2011

You are ignoring some essential facts.

The reality is that Ron Paul will never win. And even if he win, he would achieve nothing because the entire political system would oppose him. And even if he somehow gained dictatorial powers, he would only cause civil war because the 80% of Americans who derive a significant portion of their income from the state would riot.

In our current intellectual climate, advocacy of rational policies is inversely proportional with the probability of winning elections. And if that ever changes, the candidates won't need our support anymore.

So the real question is - why would anyone waste resources on politicians when there are real causes worth supporting?

softwareNerd · September 23, 2011

You should lose the "dollar sign" in the title graphic as it represents an immoral government-sponsored system of currency. Its a particularly antithetical symbol to be combined with Objectivism.

You are welcome to provide a better image. It was the best I could find on short notice. I'll post the PSD if you like.

bluecherry · September 20, 2011

The forum rules prohibite "profane" content, which means "to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt. They do not prohibit profanity. I would futher say "we are not children here," but I do not accept the premise that secrets (or concepts) should be kept hidden from children either.

So I will say that I believe in effective communitication, whatever that entails. If your communication is full of fallacies, emotional appeals, dishonesty, or irrelevancies, then it doesn't matter how decorous it is. But as we are human beings with different levels of maturity and education and strong emotions, I do not object to appropriate use of profanity. And I think it's silly to self-censor the name of a television show.

July 23, 2011

I've disabled CloudFlare as a test. Is it better now?

July 5, 2011

I've configured this website to run on CloudFlare. Please let me know if you find any issues.

January 31, 2011

HeroicLife posted a photo:

Cross-posted from Metablog

December 21, 2010

Major news sources may have published information, but many have worked with the government and redacted information contained within intelligence reports, situation reports, cables, etc...

This is equally true of Wikileaks. They have only released information after working with major news organization to screen them. Less than 1% of the 250,000 cables have been released so far.

There is a lie being spread by the government/media that they are releasing "raw" data- this is just a smear campaign.

CapitalistSwine · December 20, 2010

The biggest revelation to date is this: When pushed, the US government will behave no differently from any tin-pot dictatorship in the lengths to which it will go to cover up its wrongdoings from the people it ostensibly exists to serve. The illusion that US citizens enjoy freedom of speech or anything resembling government transparency, indeed the very notion that we live under a "government of the people", has been busted wide open.

Assange: "We have clearly stated motives, but they are not antiwar motives. We are not pacifists. We are transparency activists who understand that transparent government tends to produce just government. And that is our sort of modus operandi... to get out suppressed information into the public"

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1245

December 19, 2010

Sunday 12/18/10 from 11:00 – 5:00 p.m.

235 E 53rd Street

Apt. 3-B

(469) 865-0375

Hello All,

My wife and I are moving to China at the end of the month and we've decided to sell nearly all of our possessions, including furniture, electronics, books, and media. Please review the list below to see if there is anything you like. I have priced the items optimistically, but please send me ANY price if you want something as we can’t take this stuff with us and we’d like it to go to a good home.

Don't miss the FREE category and the end.

1 - FURNITURE

2 Modern Glass, Wood & Metal Bookcases $200

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Modern glass pub dining table and chairs $150

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Ital sofa imported 3-piece sectional couch $500

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L-Shaped Aluminum/Frosted Glass Desk $100

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2113314415.htm

Large Trestle Desk - Antique Black $100

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2084602403.html

Z-Shaped Modern aluminum filing cabinet $30

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Modern king sized bed with headboard and platform $200

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Spring Air King sized mattress $75

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Modern black bedside table $30

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2113722438.html

2 - ELECTRONICS

Highlights:

19" LCD monitor $90

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sys/2120223253.html

27" LCD $320

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Sony Alpha 350 14Mpix DSLR camera $600

My desktop computer:

HP Pavilion Desktop tower with media bay

AMD Athlon X2+ 5600 Dual Core

Upgrade: 4GB DDR2 800

Upgrade: 1.5 TB SATA hard drive

Upgrade: GeForce GTS250 gaming graphics card

Upgrade: Modular 500Watt PSU

Upgrade: Brand new DVD-RW 28X with LightScribe

Licensed Windows 7 Ultimate

Licensed Office 2010 Premium

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$600

See also my Amazon Storefront for more details on the electronics:

http://www.amazon.com/shops/davidv

3: BOOKS - $1 each for most titles

I have complete sets of books by these authors and many more:

Ayn Rand (and all related books published by ARI)

Leonard Peikoff

James Clavell (most)

Robert A Heinlein (includes a number of first editions)

Larry Niven

Neal Stephenson

William Gibson

Vernor Vinge

Programming books - .net, web and general

Any many more...

Check this link to get an idea of the rest of my collection:

http://rationalmind.net/david/deliciouslibrary/

4: DVD's - $2 each

Several dozen DVDs

FREE:

Black Bookcase-a little roughed up

Any kind of computer and audio/video cable imaginable

Clothes hangers

Sports gear

For more info, please come to our open house!

CapitalistSwine · December 19, 2010

Many people are uncritically accepting the government's and the media's lies without doing much research. Some facts:

WikiLeaks is a four year old organization based outside of the U.S.

Over the last four years, WikiLeaks has published many leaked documents, most of it having nothing to do with the United State government.

WikiLeaks does not obtain any information, illegally or otherwise. It only publishes information which is provided do it anonymously by third parties.

U.S. law applies within the United States. The United States is not a global dictatorship (yet.)

A group of foreign citizens doing something in a foreign country cannot be guilty of treason. Treason is something that applies to U.S. citizens living under United States law.

Major U.S. newspapers are publishing the same materials which was published by WikiLeaks without any consequences. This is because the U.S. government feels that there will be less of an outrage if it violates the rights of a group of unknowns rather than a major newspaper.

The Supreme Court has ruled that publishing secret government documents by the media is protected by the first amendment. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers

There is no evidence of anyone ever being harmed by the leaks. The leaked cables are carefully selected and edited before release.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people died and are still dying because the U.S. government lied.

December 12, 2010

Accessing the member map causes the following error:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 346595 bytes) in /home/objectj0/public_html/objectivismonline/forum/admin/sources/classes/output/formats/html/htmlOutput.php on line 639

I'm using Google Chrome.

Oops. Fixed.

December 11, 2010

235 E 53rd Street

Apt. 3-B

New York, NY 10022

(469) 865-0375

Hello all,

My wife and I are moving to China at the end of the month and we've decided to sell nearly all of our possessions, including furniture, electronics, books, and media. Please review the list below to see if there is anything you like. I have priced the items optimistically, but please send me a price if you want something as we can’t take this stuff with us and we’d like it to go to a good home.

We are having an open house Sunday the 12th from noon to 4pm for anyone who wants to go through our books and movies or take any of the free stuff we have.

Please don't miss the FREE category and the end.

1 - FURNITURE

2 Modern Glass, Wood & Metal Bookcases

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2092354633.html

Modern wood media center/tv stand

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2098954975.html

Modern glass pub dining table and chairs

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2098947600.html

Ital sofa imported 3-piece sectional couch

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2098938044.html

L-Shaped Aluminum/Frosted Glass Desk

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/2084323321.html