In science, do we trust ?

What Covid vaccination drive tells us about Homo Irrationalis.

From the day covid vaccination drive started in India — wife and I have been debating it’s efficacy. It’s your typical Indian setting: middle aged couple bantering over chai and pakoras on a Sunday evening — farts, burps and opinions colliding with mosquitoes and TV anchors.

None of us are doctors — so facts are butchered on both sides with impunity. Wifey quotes media reports of “vaccine hesitancy” and news of it’s side-effects. My stance is that even the humble Paracetamol has some side-effects. When the vaccination drive is being done on such a huge level — there are bound to be cases of adverse effects (0.001% of 10 million is 100).

I find it fascinating how we humans find the balancing of risk and reward so difficult. I know for a fact that a hundred thousand flights take off and land safely every day — but I chant Hanuman Chalisa every time my plane is humming ominously on the runway.

But it also make me wonder whether this is the reason why AI would rule us in future. Because AI is cold — just like Captain Spock — it’s the ultimate model of rationality. It’s Homo Economicus, our ideal brother, who economists always wanted us to be. Till we were rescued by Kahneman & Tversky :)

Or would AI save us from ourselves.

Whad’ya think?