3 ms·

The intractable challenge is that what constitutes “enough” and “too much” is extremely variable worldwide because there’s no “correct” answer on what values pe

The intractable challenge is that what constitutes “enough” and “too much” is extremely variable worldwide because there’s no “correct” answer on what values people should be working toward and no physical enforcement mechanism towards some resting state Consider you dropping a baseball off of the Eiffel Tower We can predict with extreme certainty what’s going to happen to the baseball because there are fundamental laws of physics that we can measure and predict based on actions taken in the world, what the next steps are going to be in the given environment in context Despite what economists tell you there is no natural law of commerce. There are no laws of social interaction. Something acceptable on one side of the planet would be totally totally unacceptable on the other side of the planet. One side of the planet may have infinite solar resources that are sustainably extracted and turned into commercial capacity while another side of the planet is experiencing ravaging drought, and wildfires or something. The extreme variability in our environments as humans does not allow for direct comparison of relative suffering because the contexts are so vastly different

nkurz 2y ago
> Consider you dropping a baseball off of the Eiffel Tower That seems like a really odd example to use unless you are making the point that the basic laws of physics can only take you so far. As starter, assuming we drop it from the top (330m), how fast is the baseball travelling when it hits the ground? If you apply standard physics formulas, I think you are likely to be way wrong. There are good formulas for the terminal velocity of a perfect sphere in still air, but I think the error would be significant if you try to apply this to a real life baseball. And how close to the point of aim (straight down) does it hit? If you just drop it, it's a knuckleball, and it's going to float every which way. I don't think we even have a formula you can use here---you are basically limited to testing it out and measuring. So while I'd agree that laws of economics are nowhere near as precise and well founded as the laws of physics, at least for this example I'm not sure that they differ as much as you'd like when put in actual practice.
- defrost 2y ago
  Let's not forget the near certainty that our imperfect sphere will hit at least one angled steel beam on the way down, it's not a clean fall through air from the peak to the tower to the ground, it's a tower that famously flares out at the base. The bounce of a baseball against steel at an uncertain angle isn't as clean a computation in real life as the GP appears to suggest, in addition to the seam | stitching spin additions.

nkurz 2y ago

> Consider you dropping a baseball off of the Eiffel Tower That seems like a really odd example to use unless you are making the point that the basic laws of physics can only take you so far. As starter, assuming we drop it from the top (330m), how fast is the baseball travelling when it hits the ground? If you apply standard physics formulas, I think you are likely to be way wrong. There are good formulas for the terminal velocity of a perfect sphere in still air, but I think the error would be significant if you try to apply this to a real life baseball. And how close to the point of aim (straight down) does it hit? If you just drop it, it's a knuckleball, and it's going to float every which way. I don't think we even have a formula you can use here---you are basically limited to testing it out and measuring. So while I'd agree that laws of economics are nowhere near as precise and well founded as the laws of physics, at least for this example I'm not sure that they differ as much as you'd like when put in actual practice.

defrost 2y ago
Let's not forget the near certainty that our imperfect sphere will hit at least one angled steel beam on the way down, it's not a clean fall through air from the peak to the tower to the ground, it's a tower that famously flares out at the base. The bounce of a baseball against steel at an uncertain angle isn't as clean a computation in real life as the GP appears to suggest, in addition to the seam | stitching spin additions.