Greg Wellman

@graydon@canada.masto.host Well, I'm certainly open to the idea that my experience is statistically unusual. I agree that there is strong evidence for cognitive damage from every infection, or at least every clinically noticeable infection. If an up-to-date-vaccinated person takes a 2 point hit to IQ from even a subclinical brush with the virus, we're f-cked as a species. (standard disclaimer re what does IQ really measure - it's still not good to take repeated hits to it) I wonder if there is any statistically valid survey data in our industry on this topic. It's not like I can go on teams or slack and ask "Hey, do you think Covid has damaged your ability to do your job?" :-). I just don't get the impression that any of the few specific people I work with closely have really lost any skills. But that's a small sample. There's been a lot of discussion/venting amongst educators about students since the pandemic, with some blaming the interruption in effective schooling during the pandemic, and others blaming AI usage more recently. If it's really mostly cognitive damage from Covid, that would be worse. I do think the general public is trying to avoid thinking about the implications here. If every kid is going to get Covid say three times growing up, and that is going to cost about 7 points of IQ, that's a full half a std deviation. We can't just let that happen, generation after generation, but I don't see a plan. Obviously the current HHS isn't going to consider this. On that last point, I have noticed I'm more frazzled in the last year, but I'm pretty sure it's not a cognitive deficit, but the cognitive load of watching a bunch of criminals and incompetents run the US into the ground.

@RyeNCode@mstdn.ca @graydon@canada.masto.host Wow, I'm sorry you got it so many times. You're probably already familiar with this, but the following link covers what I think is the current understanding of average cognitive effects from various cases. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/even-fully-recovered-survivors-mild-covid-can-lose-iq-points-study-suggests I think when they say "mild" they really mean "not so bad as to require hospitalization", so really mild might not be as bad. But still three or four cases could be rough. I was definitely lucky wrt Covid - like you a developer working from home for years before Covid, but no kids. My spouse has both an autoimmune disease and an immune deficit. Until the vaccines were available, we figured one case could kill her, so we were *really* careful. Heck, 7 or so vaccines later, we still mask in public. In the six years since then I've had minor cold symptoms twice, which sure beats an average of a couple of colds a year before that. Right there with you on AI in the workplace. I've found it useful a couple of times to suggest/identify the right algorithm for a situation, but I would never let it write production code. I've seen colleagues use Copilot to try to identify a problem, and it was wildly wrong, suggesting code that would just hide the problem for a while, not really fix it.

@graydon@canada.masto.host Wait, are you claiming that literally more than half of current programmers have suffered a debilitating decline in their ability to debug, as a result of Covid? Ours was the easiest profession in which to work from home. I don't know if anyone I work with had a serious case of Covid, but no one seems impaired. I know that those unfortunate enough to get Long Covid have suffered significant cognitive impairment, but that's a small minority. (AFAIK, I've never had Covid. I still mask.)

@awhite @jerzone My immediate reaction also!

@energiepirat Recognizing which facts - the relatively long history of climate science, or the significant under-crediting of women in science history in general? In 🇨🇦 and 🇺🇸 I'd say the general public knows hardly anything about either. I've spent some time studying climate science and I hadn't heard of Foote until this post by @Sheril ☹️.

@energiepirat @Sheril Arrhenius came along later. He was the first (I think!) to suggest that mankind could change the climate via increasing CO2. Foote (and Tyndall) were the first to describe the effect of (mostly naturally occurring at the time!) CO2, and water vapor(*). Fourier ... see Martin Vermeer's response https://defcon.social/@martinvermeer@fediscience.org/109845728811518669 (*) While water is a potent greenhouse gas, it's also purely an amplifying feedback. It's effectively impossible to change its concentration in isolation.

@Stefan_Urbat @Sheril Do you cite them as footenotes? (sorry, had to)

@johnzajac@dice.camp @graydon@canada.masto.host I have heard of a significant increase in autoimmune conditions since Covid hit. That in addition to the cognitive deficits. I may have to "update my priors" about just how widespread these effects are based on this thread. I'm quite an introvert so everyone I know is a small number. I should look for population studies on it. Like I mentioned on another sub-thread, we were very careful because we figured it would kill my wife if she got it before vaccines, and would still be pretty bad after. So I'm pretty confident neither of us have had it. In the six years since it began I've had minor cold symptoms twice, which sure beats an average of a couple of colds a year before that. For one of those I got a "real" test. The other was so minor I just used a RAT.

@Sheril@mastodon.social The only two that came to my mind were Stephan Rahmstorf and Juan Maldacena - and then I had to look up how to spell their last names. (Ok, I thought of Neil dGT as well.)

@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social Has anyone given you grief over "towing the party line" in https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/spoon

@freya@social.highenergymagic.net @graydon@canada.masto.host My sympathy also. I hope the plasticity of the brain allows you to recover more over time.

@freya@social.highenergymagic.net @graydon@canada.masto.host So sorry.