From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Mar 26 2003 - 11:19:19 MST
Amara Graps wrote:
> MaxM
>
>> No ... it is nonsense.
>> http://www.ntskeptics.org/1999/1999april/april1999.htm
>> Not long ago, for example, I briefly dealt with a popular diet book by
>> "naturopathic physician" Peter J. D'Adamo entitled Eat Right 4 Your Type
>> in which it was claimed that one's blood type determines how one should
>> eat. When I first heard about this book, I had a good laugh and moved
>> on to other things since it seemed headed for the remainder houses.
>
>
> But his institute might be getting funded ... :-(
There are two important points to remember.
First, for all you know, a million crank ideas failed of funding before
this one happened to "hit". A few selective case examples don't show that
crankhood is a more reliable path to funding, though they may certainly
give that impression, and I would not be surprised if it were true. Just
remember that you will only ever hear about the crank ideas getting
enormous funding, and not all the crank ideas that get even less funding
than the WTA.
Second, WTA and D'Adamo occupy separate planes of existence. There is no
use envying him. It will simply raise your blood pressure. Events that
go on in the Sphere of Human Stupidity cannot be usefully compared with
events in academia or serious altruism. They are inconvertible.
Stupidity Funding cannot be transferred to altruistic organizations. It
is not wasted money, it is a convection current in the flow of Stupidity
Dollars, which are not accessible to you to begin with.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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