3 ms·

I know nothing about character.ai, but isn't the premise that it's just role-playing? At my previous workplace, a coworker told someone with a cold to make sur

by tasuki 2y ago

I know nothing about character.ai, but isn't the premise that it's just role-playing? At my previous workplace, a coworker told someone with a cold to make sure to hydrate, and someone told him off for giving medical advice. 1. Where lies the line between normal advice and medical advice? 2. Why should medical advice only be given by practicing professionals?

hulitu 2y ago
> 2. Why should medical advice only be given by practicing professionals? Because "writing code" != "programming" != "software engineering".
latexr 2y ago
> Why should medical advice only be given by practicing professionals? Same reason people who aren’t lawyers shouldn’t be giving legal advice. A layperson isn’t equipped to know if the advice they’re giving is good or harmful.
- tasuki 2y ago
  > Same reason people who aren’t lawyers shouldn’t be giving legal advice. I don't get that either. Why lawyers and doctors? Is it ok to give eg fishing advice? What about mental health? Is it ok to suggest someone go see a doctor? In a way that's also medical advice. Why can't we just use judgement both when giving and when receiving advice? > A layperson isn’t equipped to know if the advice they’re giving is good or harmful. I think you overestimate professionals. Even professional advice – in all kinds of fields – is often times bad.
  - latexr 2y ago
    > Why lawyers and doctors? Because wrong advice from either can have serious lasting consequences on your life. Use that as your metric and it becomes obvious. Think “what’s the worse that could happen is this advice is shit?” If the answer is death/sickness/losing your home/another thing you’re not prepared to live with, perhaps consider contacting a professional instead of listening to some rando on Twitter. > Is it ok to give eg fishing advice? Are you going fishing for fun on a small pond, or are you going on a dangerous boat expedition that could cost you your life? > Even professional advice – in all kinds of fields – is often times bad. Yes, there are incompetent people in all walks of life, but you’re drawing a false equivalence. You’re more likely to get sound advice from a random sample of professionals in an area—especially if it’s a field which requires a license to operate in—than a random sample of laypeople. Additionally, licensed professionals could lose their licenses and have their professional careers cut short (meaning all their years of investment in their craft down the drain) if they’re profoundly negligent, giving them extra incentive to not mess up. A random person doesn’t need to care and suffers no consequences if you take their advice and end up maimed. Not all fields are created equally.
    - dazed_confused 2y ago
      100% correct, but most of those, like the GP sadly, aren't really gonna pay attention.
    - tasuki 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - latexr 2y ago
        Come on, now you’re being deliberately obtuse. If you want to take medical and legal advice from an internet rando, an LLM, or a magic 8 ball, that’s your prerogative. The rationale has been explained to you at length, you’re free to ignore it. No one cares.
      - andreareina 2y ago
        Yes bad dating advice is equivalent to saying that being creative with the price of an options grant is ok[1]. Or that you can cure cancer with diet. [1] https://a16z.com/why-i-did-not-go-to-jail/ https://a16z.com/why-i-did-not-go-to-jail/
  - nuancebydefault 2y ago
    Free advice is often worth as much as you pay for it. My inlaw is constantly saying things in convincing ways. I know for a fact that half the things they say is incorrect. Friends and family just want to make conversation. It makes people socializable, it often just feels good. In the back of your mind always think, it is probably in good faith, but still to be taken with a large grain of salt. That's the only rather safe way. That said, paid advice is not guaranteed to be correct.
kashunstva 2y ago
> Where lies the line between normal advice and medical advice? In part it has to do with risk and knowledge of context. In a normal clinical setting, gathering of context is an important prerequisite of advice-giving, or treatment. “Drink lots of water.” might be unsound advice in persons with renal failure, congestive heart failure, nephrotic syndrome, etc. Agree that the case you cite seems a little extreme; but I think the blurry line is somewhere around risk and context.
6510 2y ago
Those questions are more interesting than they seem. 1. The line is where you can legally get away with giving advice. 2. You are for the most part free to experiment on yourself and you may for the most part read whatever crazy books you can find. For 1+2 I think you can get away with telling the story about self medicating. The difference is A) I hear good things about weekly ice swimming replacing anti depressants. Some people chew onions and garlic for open tooth infections and put kiwi on closed ones. B) You can go ice swimming and quit anti depressants. You can chew onions and garlic for open tooth infections and put kiwi on closed ones. I'm pretty sure someone killed their parents for some reason and that we are allowed to talk about it.

by tasuki 2y ago

hulitu 2y ago

> 2. Why should medical advice only be given by practicing professionals? Because "writing code" != "programming" != "software engineering".

latexr 2y ago

> Why should medical advice only be given by practicing professionals? Same reason people who aren’t lawyers shouldn’t be giving legal advice. A layperson isn’t equipped to know if the advice they’re giving is good or harmful.

tasuki 2y ago
> Same reason people who aren’t lawyers shouldn’t be giving legal advice. I don't get that either. Why lawyers and doctors? Is it ok to give eg fishing advice? What about mental health? Is it ok to suggest someone go see a doctor? In a way that's also medical advice. Why can't we just use judgement both when giving and when receiving advice? > A layperson isn’t equipped to know if the advice they’re giving is good or harmful. I think you overestimate professionals. Even professional advice – in all kinds of fields – is often times bad.
- latexr 2y ago
  > Why lawyers and doctors? Because wrong advice from either can have serious lasting consequences on your life. Use that as your metric and it becomes obvious. Think “what’s the worse that could happen is this advice is shit?” If the answer is death/sickness/losing your home/another thing you’re not prepared to live with, perhaps consider contacting a professional instead of listening to some rando on Twitter. > Is it ok to give eg fishing advice? Are you going fishing for fun on a small pond, or are you going on a dangerous boat expedition that could cost you your life? > Even professional advice – in all kinds of fields – is often times bad. Yes, there are incompetent people in all walks of life, but you’re drawing a false equivalence. You’re more likely to get sound advice from a random sample of professionals in an area—especially if it’s a field which requires a license to operate in—than a random sample of laypeople. Additionally, licensed professionals could lose their licenses and have their professional careers cut short (meaning all their years of investment in their craft down the drain) if they’re profoundly negligent, giving them extra incentive to not mess up. A random person doesn’t need to care and suffers no consequences if you take their advice and end up maimed. Not all fields are created equally.
  - dazed_confused 2y ago
    100% correct, but most of those, like the GP sadly, aren't really gonna pay attention.
  - tasuki 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - latexr 2y ago
      Come on, now you’re being deliberately obtuse. If you want to take medical and legal advice from an internet rando, an LLM, or a magic 8 ball, that’s your prerogative. The rationale has been explained to you at length, you’re free to ignore it. No one cares.
    - andreareina 2y ago
      Yes bad dating advice is equivalent to saying that being creative with the price of an options grant is ok[1]. Or that you can cure cancer with diet. [1] https://a16z.com/why-i-did-not-go-to-jail/ https://a16z.com/why-i-did-not-go-to-jail/
- nuancebydefault 2y ago
  Free advice is often worth as much as you pay for it. My inlaw is constantly saying things in convincing ways. I know for a fact that half the things they say is incorrect. Friends and family just want to make conversation. It makes people socializable, it often just feels good. In the back of your mind always think, it is probably in good faith, but still to be taken with a large grain of salt. That's the only rather safe way. That said, paid advice is not guaranteed to be correct.

kashunstva 2y ago

> Where lies the line between normal advice and medical advice? In part it has to do with risk and knowledge of context. In a normal clinical setting, gathering of context is an important prerequisite of advice-giving, or treatment. “Drink lots of water.” might be unsound advice in persons with renal failure, congestive heart failure, nephrotic syndrome, etc. Agree that the case you cite seems a little extreme; but I think the blurry line is somewhere around risk and context.

6510 2y ago

Those questions are more interesting than they seem. 1. The line is where you can legally get away with giving advice. 2. You are for the most part free to experiment on yourself and you may for the most part read whatever crazy books you can find. For 1+2 I think you can get away with telling the story about self medicating. The difference is A) I hear good things about weekly ice swimming replacing anti depressants. Some people chew onions and garlic for open tooth infections and put kiwi on closed ones. B) You can go ice swimming and quit anti depressants. You can chew onions and garlic for open tooth infections and put kiwi on closed ones. I'm pretty sure someone killed their parents for some reason and that we are allowed to talk about it.