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by SenorTibbs
2107 days ago
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This is a really great point and I believe it is (at least partially) driving the anti-science rhetoric that seems to be metastasizing. When a topic is inaccessible to the general public, and only experts in the field can understand it and hold a monopoly on information, then you inevitably start to see pushback against it. That being said however, making certain fields more accessible to the populace often comes with the price of a false sense of understanding. You see this a lot in medicine with WedMD, where heuristics that largely ignore the deeper pathophysiology have empowered some to believe they are more knowledgeable than their doctors. This must be doubly true for the more abstract forms of physics - where any simplified analogy is going to give rise to false notions via extrapolation. I think there has to be some sort of balance between the two |
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In Japan there exists an institution called Ningen Dock. Almost nobody in the West has heard of it outside of Randox Research which is astonishing as most Japanese people visit it once a year. I believe this is a psycho-social-medical institution. It purports to be a medical institution but it's something more.
Youtubers describe their experiences of Ningen Dock if you're curious.
It works like this - most people in Japan visit the 'dock' - a metaphor from shipyards. There is a brain dock, a heart dock, a lung dock and so on. Every major hospital has this department where the patient is checked head to foot once a year. Here is the important part. They are given a grade sheet - the sort a schoolteacher awards students. Here you see your kidney was given a B-, a liver a C-. These are hints about your lifestyle choices. Perhaps you should feel bad. In one more year there will exist another Ningen Dock. I believe this institution is responsible for a superior resilience against lifestyle disease that overwhelms healthcare in other developed states. It's preventative healthcare taken seriously instead of mouthing platitudes about lifestyle choices while back in Western reality you're never far from a fatty who knows they're making mistakes. It could be you or me!
Now Sir Gwern and other analytical thinkers of HN will have spotted the problem. False positives leading to needless surgeries. This is how Western doctors are trained to think and they find Ningen Dock incomprehensible. If though we assume Japanese MDs are not idiots and positive externalities exist from the Ningen Dock then it could easily be paying for itself. The hypochondriacs don't menace the healthcare system. Their energy is redirected to superior choices. For everybody the locus goes away from the doctor and analysis and toward being responsible on your health to the best of your ability - guided by timely medical advice. The system also develops a giant database of longitudinal information which can be used to spot health patterns across populations - to enhance targeting of the analytical process. I'm sure there are lots of other tangible advantages I haven't mentioned.
So that is patient empowerment - but the tribalism aspect is important too. The system is saying to the people - we're on your side, we're on the same team, we are in your corner, we are working for you. A lot of people don't feel that way and it needs to be said. Think of the rise of ASMR videos. Hundreds of millions of people watching supposed doctors treating them. There's something there. Just the insistent affirmation would be positive for mental health.