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One day, an anti-dragonist on a speaking tour visited a town. When he arrived, most of the town's inns were already full, and he had to make do with a small roo

One day, an anti-dragonist on a speaking tour visited a town. When he arrived, most of the town's inns were already full, and he had to make do with a small room in a small in in a run-down part of the town. The next morning, he stood outside the inn on his soap box and told people about how the dragon could be defeated. A small crowd gathered around him. When he had finished speaking, a woman asked: "My children are hungry. My husband went off to war against the tigers and never came back. How does killing the dragon help them?" "Well, they too will one day be fed to the dragon!" "But they are hungry now. My baby is very weak. She cries all the time. Even if she doesn't die, she's going to grow up stunted." "I'm sure you can find a way. Anyway, I'm here to talk about the dragon, it's..." Another interrupted him: "My son was killed by the king's men three weeks ago. They laughed as they cut him down. No one will hear my case." "Well, I'm sure they had a good reason. Your son was probably a criminal." Another said: "My family beats me because I don't want to marry the man they chose for me. Right now, I wouldn't mind being eaten." "Listen. I'm not interested in the problems of you little people. They're not my problems, and anyway, you're probably lying, or exaggerating, or just not trying hard enough. But I'm scared of the dragon, because the dragon's going to eat everyone, including me. So we should concentrate on that, don't you agree?" And the people rolled their eyes and walked away.

gwern 11y ago
Few people die of hunger or being shot by police (Seriously, that is your example?). Yes, even in Africa. (Think about the implications of a global life expectancy of 70+, and African life expectancies ranging from 47-74, and 59 average.)
- Zarkonnen 11y ago
  Yes, we can take preventable diseases as an example instead, if you prefer.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    That sentiment was already expressed in the article, in the form of the tigers and snakes. There are far too many small-scale distractions that people find appealing to focus on, whether because they seem more approachable or because they're the actual culprit in the death of specific people.
    - pavlov 11y ago
      Hunger and diseases are not "small-scale distractions". Every year about 3 million children under five die of hunger-related causes. Is that not another dragon, one that specializes in babies and toddlers? If this dragon is easier and cheaper to slay than the other, why not fight it first?
      - JoshTriplett 11y ago
        Depends on what approach you favor to fight the dragon. I tend to favor solutions that simultaneously solve those problems as well, along with many others. However, if you primarily favor the SENS approach, then I certainly agree that hunger is a large-scale orthogonal problem that needs proportionally large attention. Disease, on the other hand, is not a single problem, and does not have a single solution. Any one individual disease is far smaller of a problem. (Even cancer, though the research on SENS is will likely need to address that one anyway in the course of figuring out how to eliminate cell death without creating cancer.)
        Zarkonnen 11y ago
        Everything I've read on the topic of aging suggests that it too, is not a single problem with a single solution. There is no "senescence switch" that can be turned off. Our bodies break down in a myriad of ways, and to "kill the dragon", we have to deal with all of them. This is a massive sleight of hand on part of this article: describing the fix for aging as a single event.
      - reasonattlm 11y ago
        And 3 million of malaria, and 38 million due to aging. Enormous sums are spent on removing the former, very little on removing the latter. None of the priorities are correct, and it isn't even a matter of resources going to one or the other to get it done first - it's a matter of convincing people to direct more than the present tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of overall resources to these goals. Early stage medical research funding and programs aimed at prevention of poverty are both small potatoes in comparison to the throughput of the alcohol industry or the professional sports edifice, for example. In a world in which the beer and the circuses are a massive expenditure, there is plenty of room to convince more funding for things that actually matter without taking from one beneficial program to prioritize another.
D_Alex 11y ago
False-dichotomy much??

gwern 11y ago

Few people die of hunger or being shot by police (Seriously, that is your example?). Yes, even in Africa. (Think about the implications of a global life expectancy of 70+, and African life expectancies ranging from 47-74, and 59 average.)

Zarkonnen 11y ago
Yes, we can take preventable diseases as an example instead, if you prefer.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  That sentiment was already expressed in the article, in the form of the tigers and snakes. There are far too many small-scale distractions that people find appealing to focus on, whether because they seem more approachable or because they're the actual culprit in the death of specific people.
  - pavlov 11y ago
    Hunger and diseases are not "small-scale distractions". Every year about 3 million children under five die of hunger-related causes. Is that not another dragon, one that specializes in babies and toddlers? If this dragon is easier and cheaper to slay than the other, why not fight it first?
    - JoshTriplett 11y ago
      Depends on what approach you favor to fight the dragon. I tend to favor solutions that simultaneously solve those problems as well, along with many others. However, if you primarily favor the SENS approach, then I certainly agree that hunger is a large-scale orthogonal problem that needs proportionally large attention. Disease, on the other hand, is not a single problem, and does not have a single solution. Any one individual disease is far smaller of a problem. (Even cancer, though the research on SENS is will likely need to address that one anyway in the course of figuring out how to eliminate cell death without creating cancer.)
      - Zarkonnen 11y ago
        Everything I've read on the topic of aging suggests that it too, is not a single problem with a single solution. There is no "senescence switch" that can be turned off. Our bodies break down in a myriad of ways, and to "kill the dragon", we have to deal with all of them. This is a massive sleight of hand on part of this article: describing the fix for aging as a single event.
    - reasonattlm 11y ago
      And 3 million of malaria, and 38 million due to aging. Enormous sums are spent on removing the former, very little on removing the latter. None of the priorities are correct, and it isn't even a matter of resources going to one or the other to get it done first - it's a matter of convincing people to direct more than the present tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of overall resources to these goals. Early stage medical research funding and programs aimed at prevention of poverty are both small potatoes in comparison to the throughput of the alcohol industry or the professional sports edifice, for example. In a world in which the beer and the circuses are a massive expenditure, there is plenty of room to convince more funding for things that actually matter without taking from one beneficial program to prioritize another.

D_Alex 11y ago

False-dichotomy much??