theseus

Pretty sure I remember reading Taleb on this, stating that homicides follow a normal distribution and he accepts Pinker's argument there. He de-couples this from the other kinds of violence, saying that the narrative stretches too wide--specifically warfare should be analyzed separately, since that follows Pareto distributions.

My guess is the mostly the tone and the overly strong conclusion.

The topic is certainly one that is close to home for a lot of LWers and it seems to me we've heard almost all the variations. Then the tone, of a kind of artistic revelatory piece introducing lots of ideas only to dismiss them soon after, seems much more appropriate for a journalistic piece than the kind of deep logical thinking strived for here. Putting arguments in the reader's mouth and talking very patronizingly ("you're a picky one... my friend... this probably isn't going where you... (read more)

This is an exact instance of the point of the post. It is important to assume they are hunting people down, because that's the LCPW and the fact that this trolley problem incorporates using someone who shows up at the hospital is entirely an unnecessary contingent fact.