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A comment on New gel restores dental enamel and could revolutionise tooth repair. Parent comment

Re:New gel restores dental enamel and could revolutionise to... by saghm on Friday November 07, 2025 @05:00PM (#45851657)
They're not responsible for the situations that end up encouraging certain actions though, and they shouldn't be blamed for not being able to solve the collective action problem[1]. I'd argue that the only blame that's fair to place on them in situations like this is from direct results of their individual actions, not the propagation of incentives that are beyond their power to change regardless of their own individual decisions.

If you're willing to blame someone for not acting against their own individual interest, doesn't it make more sense for it to be the people who are going out of their way to reward others for acting in that way?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:New gel restores dental enamel and could revolutionise to... by rhubarbtree on Sunday November 09, 2025 @03:50PM (#45869052)
Na, not buying it.

Evolution creates a situation that encourages all sorts of terrible actions, and the vast majority of people choose to control their animal instincts.

Additionally: the people who encourage the performative research are the people who control grant review. And those people are the same people as the performative researchers.

A bunch of people figured they could make a career doing bs performative research and corrupted the whole system to serve them.

[ Parent | on HN ]