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http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2600/fc02547.htm

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I took the WIAS, and they looked at the ratio between my working memory scores (which were around the population average) and the rest of my IQ (which was above the population average, but apparently average for the lesswrong-o-sphere) The ratio indicated my working memory was much worse than the rest of my scores would predict, which indicates ADHD, but the psychologist was unsure if that warranted diagnosis because while I did show the selective working memory deficit, my working memory was technically average. (I’ve pretty much spent my entire life coming up with compensation strategies)

I also took the TOVA, which tests response inhibition, in which I did so poorly that the responses could not be scored. It was very humiliating. All you have to do is press a button when a symbol come sup, and not press a button when a different symbol comes up. I couldn’t do it. That was the test which really settled the diagnosis in the psychologist’s mind. (Before the TOVA and the digit span, they were kind of teasing me about my scores and wondering why I bothered to come in, which was both weirdly ego boosting and frustrating at the same time – I was afraid I wouldn’t get help at first)

I also took Wisconsin Card Sorting, Stroop test, dislexia screening, and so on, which I passed with flying colors, screening out various other disorders.

I’m a little surprised you don’t know for sure… aren’t you a psychiatrist? (that’s not intended as rudeness, just curiosity as to why they don’t train psychiatrists to know these things)

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I actually do have a problem with forced psychiatric drug use regardless of age or mental competence (except maybe in very extreme circumstances, though as a consequentialist I could say that about anything), and think they should be treated differently from “physical” (ugh that sounds so duelist) medicine. I missed the psychiatric drug part when I first read the story. Though in this case I think whether or not to take psychiatric drugs should have been up to Justina rather than her parents or doctors.

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As for the medicine thing I think their should be guidelines as to what type of medicine and when young children should be required to take. The status of various vaccines as mandatory for should be decided on a case to case basis*, and any medicine that has a reasonable chance of being life saving and/or long-term debilitation-preventing should be given regardless of what the guardians say. Older minors should have some level of say in their own medication. Obviously I don’t know all the details of how this should be set up, I’m not a bureaucrat.

I didn’t know who Justina Pelletier was so I just Googled her. From my quick glance I don’t have the information to judge that specific case and can’t really find enough. But these parents are certainly abusive: http://www.ohio.com/news/local/amish-family-flees-to-avoid-chemotherapy-for-girl-with-cancer-1.448261 . As are parents who refuse to give their children important vaccinations.

As to overthrowing governments, if there is a group with enough power and motive to possibly try then there is motive to act like the modern meaning of tyranny. “Precedent” seems largely irrelevant. Also I would like to point out that many government throughout history have acted like that despite being in power for a long time and not being very threatened. And almost all governments started out as tyrannies, exceptions include some peaceful secessions (like what Scotland just tried).

*Edit: “case to case basis” meant between different vaccines. Though actually exceptions should be made for vaccine allergies.

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http://lesswrong.com/lw/o0/where_to_draw_the_boundary/

http://lesswrong.com/lw/o2/mutual_information_and_density_in_thingspace/

http://lesswrong.com/lw/o3/superexponential_conceptspace_and_simple_words/

If you define “eluctromugnetism” to include lightning, include compasses, exclude light, and include Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” (what we now call hypnosis), then you will have some trouble asking “How does eluctromugnetism work?” You have lumped together things which do not belong together, and excluded others that would be needed to complete a set. (This example is historically plausible; Mesmer came before Faraday.)

We could say that eluctromugnetism is a wrong word, a boundary in thingspace that loops around and swerves through the clusters, a cut that fails to carve reality along its natural joints.

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