[extropy-chat] is eliezer here yet?

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Jeff Davis wrote:
> --- "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
>> Also, Spike, I hate to say this, but I've always avoided sushi, so
>> far, because of concerns about raw fish.  Maybe I would eat irradiated
>> sushi.
> 
> Your reference to irradiation suggest that your concern is bacterial
> contamination.  Rawness alone doesn't cause this, or all sushi would be
> dead in the water, 'cause it's definitely raw.  Oldness and unhygenic
> handling/processing cause this.  But the fish used in sushi is uniformly
> as fresh as is humanly possible, and the handling is like, buy, wrap, 
> convey to the restaurant, put in fridge, take out of fridge, unwrap,
> slice into slivers, commingle with various other tasty bits, eat.
> (Sometimes the "put in fridge, take out of fridge" steps are skipped.)
> All achieved so soon after the fish is caught that you could probably
> clone a tuna from your sashimi.

If there's a probability, I wish to avoid it.  Even if not all raw fish is 
contaminated, cooked fish is less likely to be contaminated.  Furthermore, 
even if I've caught a bacterium or two from cooked meat over my life, as 
long as I can avoid raw fish, I can avoid the particular additional 
bacteria to be found there.  I'm particularly worried about that bug said 
to lower the intelligence and heighten the risk-taking of mice and cats.

> If texture is an issue, take note: lox, though often referred to as
> 'smoked', is in fact cold processed in a brine, it's texture
> indistinguishable from raw.  So if you've had lox, enjoyed it, and had
> no problem with its texture, then without realizing it you're already a
> sushi fan.  Believe me, I've had both, lox and salmon sashimi.  There's
> not a lick of difference, texturewise.  A rose by any other name.

I tried lox once as a child and strongly disliked it.

> Didn't know that about lox, did you?  Puts a whole new light on the
> sushi business.

Wholly illogical.  That would be like saying that I should start drinking 
wine because I discovered that my mouthwash was 15% alcohol.  The correct 
response, if one fears for one's neurons, is to stop using that mouthwash 
and use an alcohol-free mouthwash instead.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence