Comments on: The Limits of Technocracy http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/ Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:36:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Karl Smith http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-92 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:38:06 +0000 http://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-92 TGGP:

You are right. I mistakenly thought that f(t) = e^g(t) where g’(t) > 0, would necessarily reach a vertical asymptote but a quick check tells me that is wrong.

]]> By: teageegeepea http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-91 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:34:57 +0000 http://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-91 If you pop that little gem into the model you get the conclusion that people should be able to reach infinite weight in finite time.
Call me a math-stickler, but that doesn’t seem right. Do the equations in these models involve dividing by zero? Perhaps you mean growing exponentially (always finite in finite time), whereas in reality even the growth of the obese seem to exhibit the plateau of a logistic curve.

]]> By: Weight Loss » Blog Archive » The Limits of Technocracy http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-85 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:34:39 +0000 http://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-85 [...] Original post by  Modeled Behavior [...]

]]> By: Karl Smith http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-84 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:31:54 +0000 http://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-84 Well for example in randomized trails calorie unrestricted low carb beats other diets including weight watchers which a calorie restriction plan

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/1/43

also wins against calorie restriction New England Journal of Medicine

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/348/21/2082

though all of the diets tested wane in effectiveness over time

The hypothesis here is that calories in and of themselves are not a useful measure. I didn’t want to get deep into this but the phrase used in the literature is:

“We don’t get fat because we overeat, we overeat because we are getting fat”

That is, the biological process of fat deposition is controlled by an outside source. Lets not argue about what that for now. Once, the body starts to deposit fat, it uses calories to do so and becomes hungry. That hunger causes the person to eat more.

So, watching calories in and of themselves is of no effect. Not unless you are going to be constantly hungry, which is not realistic for most people.

]]> By: Mike http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-82 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:58:03 +0000 http://modeledbehavior.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-limits-of-technocracy/#comment-82 I think you are overthinking this. In SF, just recently the Quizno’s has several salad options that I was indifferent on – with the calorie labeling on the board, I noticed one was 300 calories more than the other one, so I chose the one with less calories.

The important part was that I literally had _no_ idea what the calories were beforehand. I was looking at the items, trying to guess what I would have thought they were versus what they turned out to be, and I was off by 33%+ in most cases. The body is complex, no doubt, but having some metric to help guide choices on is important, no?

My worry would be gaming it on the other end, so the salad’s are all 1 calorie because they are replaced by toxic sludge.

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