Re:Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking
by smallmancontrov on Friday February 20, 2026 @11:04AM
(#47089759)
If you cured 100% of all cancer it would only reduce US deaths by 20%. Clearly we should conclude that cancer isn't a problem and isn't worth curing, and also that heart disease and unintentional injuries and so on are also not problems and also not worth trying to fix.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking
by cle on Friday February 20, 2026 @11:11AM
(#47089880)
GP didn't say it's not a problem and not worth fixing. They're claiming this is not a good fix.
Re:Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking
by smallmancontrov on Friday February 20, 2026 @11:17AM
(#47089974)
They invented a dumb fix and complained that it wasn't good. Or, since we're being artistic in this thread: pulled a straw man out of their ass and complained that it smelled foul.
I did the same with cancer/mortality to demonstrate the same trick in a setting where its flaws were more obvious. It's true that I said the quiet part out loud in a way that the post I was mocking did not, but the quiet part is especially important to debunk so I make no apology for doing so.
Re:Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking
by qgin on Friday February 20, 2026 @12:07PM
(#47090700)
It's not really a strawman.
Total net worth of all US billionaires is about $8 trillion.
2025 budget for the US federal government is about $7 trillion.
So if you seize the entire net worth of US billionaires, you get a one time funding of the US federal government for about 14 months.