Comment by naasking
1 day ago
> Nothing in the statistical observation that variables tend to be correlated suggests we should somehow reject the moral perspective that that its desirable for a model to be based on causal rather than merely correlated variables, even if finding such variables is difficult or even, impossible to do perfectly.
Perfect is the enemy of good. That it would be desirable to construct a model based on causal variables is self-evident, but we don't have those, and if a correlative model can demonstrably improve people's material conditions, even if conditioned on variables you find "distasteful", what is your argument that such a model shouldn't be used?
It really depends on a lot of things, frankly. For one thing, we, as a society, aren't optimizing for short term material conditions exclusively. The abstract dignity of not letting arbitrary variables determine important aspects of our lives might outweigh certain material benefits.