From: M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2017 23:43:11 +0000 (-0700) Subject: mention Scott's profession X-Git-Url: http://534655.efjtl6rk.asia/source?a=commitdiff_plain;h=288e0570d6ceb0c3203f5c1db807fdd91a3497df;p=Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git mention Scott's profession This way, the "(besides Scott)" later in the paragraph should have context even for readers who don't know who he is. --- diff --git a/content/2017/memoirs-of-my-recent-madness-part-i-the-unanswerable-words.md b/content/2017/memoirs-of-my-recent-madness-part-i-the-unanswerable-words.md index 5d3c505..547a912 100644 --- a/content/2017/memoirs-of-my-recent-madness-part-i-the-unanswerable-words.md +++ b/content/2017/memoirs-of-my-recent-madness-part-i-the-unanswerable-words.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Perhaps some readers are currently thinking that my behavior was unreasonable, t I expect those readers to _fucking update_ when I say that my concerns turned out to be _completely justified_, as Roberta later (on 14 April) reported that "I have no memories of any staff telling me anything along the lines of 'Someone named [Mark] called and left a message', and this is something that would have been memorable." -(It's slightly inconvenient that this report came after I had already publicly conceded my bet of $500 against Scott Alexander (of [_Slate Star Codex_](http://slatestarcodex.com/) fame)'s $25, that Roberta hadn't gotten our messages, on the basis of testimony from our friend "Jocelyn", who lives in Cleveland and visited Roberta on 4 April—luckily, it seems that the psych ward employees only feared that HIPAA demons would eat them if they acted like human beings over the telephone, and they hadn't been programmed to deny meatspace visitors. Apparently, Jocelyn mentioned to Roberta that friends had left messages for her and interpreted Roberta's response as affirming that she had received them, when, at the time, Roberta was actually thinking in terms of interpreting lots of observations as messages from various sources. Scott and I agreed to cancel the bet and give the $500 to the [Center for Applied Rationality](http://rationality.org/). But it is _interesting to note_ that, in contrast to Scott's theory that keeping patients incommunicado is illegal and therefore doesn't happen, my theory that psych ward employees (besides Scott) are _lying kidnappers_ made a correct prediction at 20:1 odds.) +(It's slightly inconvenient that this report came after I had already publicly conceded my bet of $500 against psychiatrist Scott Alexander (of [_Slate Star Codex_](http://slatestarcodex.com/) fame)'s $25, that Roberta hadn't gotten our messages, on the basis of testimony from our friend "Jocelyn", who lives in Cleveland and visited Roberta on 4 April—luckily, it seems that the psych ward employees only feared that HIPAA demons would eat them if they acted like human beings over the telephone, and they hadn't been programmed to deny meatspace visitors. Apparently, Jocelyn mentioned to Roberta that friends had left messages for her and interpreted Roberta's response as affirming that she had received them, when, at the time, Roberta was actually thinking in terms of interpreting lots of observations as messages from various sources. Scott and I agreed to cancel the bet and give the $500 to the [Center for Applied Rationality](http://rationality.org/). But it is _interesting to note_ that, in contrast to Scott's theory that keeping patients incommunicado is illegal and therefore doesn't happen, my theory that psych ward employees (besides Scott) are _lying kidnappers_ made a correct prediction at 20:1 odds.) Anyway, Roberta is fine. I'm fine. But it turns out that we live in a world in which not _only_ is it the case that you can get arbitrarily kidnapped by the authorities and ordered to take unknown drugs under implied threat of force, it's _also_ the case that when your friends who _actually_ care about you start calling around to find out where you are, the bastards will _refuse to admit whether they've kidnapped you_ and _claim that it's for your benefit_, and if you complain about this (Subject: Hijack Innocent People And Abscond), most ordinary good nice smart law-abiding people will implicitly or explicitly take the authorities' side, because once you've been placed in the _social role_ of "crazy person", _no one will listen to anything you say_, even if you have surprisingly cogent arguments for why the casual processes that placed you in the social role of "crazy person" were mistaken to have done so.