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114 sats \ 5 replies \ @cryotosensei 3 Apr \ on: Markets and Science are Self Correcting in the Long Run FiresidePhilosophy
But surely there can be many versions of truths, and who is gonna be the judging panel to favour one truth over another? Take for instance the gene editing technology, CRISPR technology, which provides an interesting dimension to the current debates associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASS). Theoretically, with the genetic link of ASD, CRISPR has a chance of success and the possibility of eliminating ASD in an individual, and throughout the world. Who’s to say that the truth is to embrace CRISPR? And who is to say that we shouldn’t use CRISPR to play God?
I don't think what you've framed is a scientific question. The scientific convergence would be: can we figure out how CRISPR works, and the aspects of genetics and whatever else underlie it? Whether and when to use it is another, non-scientific, matter.
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Ah I see! Thanks for correcting my misapplication!
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That's a deep question and it can illustrate what they mean about both markets and science, as well as what they do not mean.
CRISPR is the technological result of scientific investigation into a bunch of different fields: genetics, physics, chemistry, etc. If CRISPR actually works to eliminate these conditions, that means our understanding of empirical reality is closer to the truth than it used to be.
If people choose to pay whatever the market price is for the use of CRISPR to eliminate these conditions, that means their preference for avoiding these conditions is greater than their preference for what they could have otherwise done with the resources exchanged to pay for CRISPR. That was a mouthful, but it's just the idea of opportunity cost. It means putting resources towards producing CRISPR services, instead of whatever else those resources might have gone towards, more effectively meets people's preferences. That's the reality of scarcity and subjective values.
What neither science nor markets are doing is evaluating whether it is morally good to use CRISPR in that way. Morality is not empirically observable and it is only imperfectly reflected in people's subjective values.
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Very nicely explained!
Have you thought of being an economics professor? (Maybe when your girl gets older) You seem to gravitate towards explaining economics stuff in digestible ways
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I have attempted to be an economics professor and will likely make more attempts in the future.
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