6 ms·

The continuing "Q collar" scandal

46 points by luu 1mo ago

rvba 1mo ago
[flagged]
- altmanaltman 1mo ago
  Wait if they blow up their guards, who will protect them from all the cave people? Surely there are better ways to buy loyalty than this James Bond villian idea lol
  - wongarsu 1mo ago
    It turns it into a kind of prisoner's dilemma where all guards rebelling means everyone dies, while only some guards rebelling means the guards that rebelled die while everyone else (including the billionaire) get to live It's incredibly unethical, but in a game theory sense it seems sound. Any one guard is punished for rebelling, and even if everyone coordinates they can't do anything about it. At least if you can eliminate the obvious weak points: the collars would have to be automatically activated
    - chongli 1mo ago
      The other obvious weak point is that you can’t surveil the guards 24/7 to make sure they don’t swap the live explosives collar with a placebo collar.
      - mrob 1mo ago
        The obvious countermeasure is adding tamper detection to make it automatically trigger if they try.
        chongli 1mo ago
        Right, that’s what they do in sci-fi books and movies. But then those collars magically never need batteries replaced, service, or replacement. They also don’t have any issues with false positive detonations. If the collar can be deactivated to be removed for servicing/off duty/retirement/replacement/etc then it can be hacked and replaced with a placebo.
- _diyar 1mo ago
  Hijacking this comment to ask about Huberman, can he really be lumped in with the other two in that list? I listen to his podcast for a while and stopped when I realized most of what he is talking about is marginal stuff or ”new research suggests”, which I found less interesting. But has he really ever been a grifter selling complete bunk? Not talking about the ad-segments, which are of course payed endorsements.
  - Arodex 1mo ago
    Well, here he is promoting complete bunk, so the question answers itself.
    - theF00l 1mo ago
      That is fair, especially on this occasion. On the other hand I have found some of his material very helpful, particularly around sleep and helping me maintain my circadian rhythm.
    - _diyar 1mo ago
      > You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr. This sentence does not imply that Huberman has endorsed this product.
  - n4r9 1mo ago
    This article seems like a fairly comprehensive run down of the issues: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberman-lab-health-advice-podcast-debunk.html https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma...
  - cheshire_cat 1mo ago
    You might be interested in these critiques of Huberman: "So, Should You Trust Andrew Huberman?" by Dr. Andrea Love: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberman-lab-health-advice-podcast-debunk.html https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma... "Is Self-Help Guru PhD a Womanizer and Pseudoscientific Nonsense Broker? | Andrew Huberman Analysis" by Dr. Todd Grande: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW3daJggoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW3daJggoQ He definitely has content that is helpful to people, but there's probably better sources for the same information.
- diryawish 1mo ago
  Incredible quote, such great context. No wonder people trust the science so much.
adaml_623 1mo ago
For anyone who has never heard of the Q Collar I'm copy pasting a google summary with a tiny bit of trimming. My first uninformed thought is, "OMG that sounds insane" " Q-Collar is a C-shaped, non-invasive silicone neck band designed to help protect athletes' brains from repetitive sub-concussive impacts. It is worn during high-impact contact sports like American football, soccer, lacrosse, and hockey. How It Works - Jugular Compression: The band applies light, safe pressure to the sides of the user's jugular veins. Increased Blood Volume: This mild pressure slightly slows blood outflow from the head, increasing blood volume in the venous structures surrounding the brain. Reduced Brain "Slosh": The extra blood acts like an internal cushion or seatbelt, minimizing the movement (sloshing) of the brain inside the skull during an impact. "
conartist6 1mo ago
> Before posting on PubPeer, Shane spoke to the authors directly to alert them of his concerns and request the data—the 2021 article has a data sharing agreement—but they denied his request because he was critical of their work. What little fucking shitbags. I surely hope they don't call themselves scientists
TheJoeMan 1mo ago
“You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr.” This sentence seems unnecessary and perhaps inflammatory, I think it detracts from the article.

46 points by luu 1mo ago

rvba 1mo ago

[flagged]

altmanaltman 1mo ago
Wait if they blow up their guards, who will protect them from all the cave people? Surely there are better ways to buy loyalty than this James Bond villian idea lol
- wongarsu 1mo ago
  It turns it into a kind of prisoner's dilemma where all guards rebelling means everyone dies, while only some guards rebelling means the guards that rebelled die while everyone else (including the billionaire) get to live It's incredibly unethical, but in a game theory sense it seems sound. Any one guard is punished for rebelling, and even if everyone coordinates they can't do anything about it. At least if you can eliminate the obvious weak points: the collars would have to be automatically activated
  - chongli 1mo ago
    The other obvious weak point is that you can’t surveil the guards 24/7 to make sure they don’t swap the live explosives collar with a placebo collar.
    - mrob 1mo ago
      The obvious countermeasure is adding tamper detection to make it automatically trigger if they try.
      - chongli 1mo ago
        Right, that’s what they do in sci-fi books and movies. But then those collars magically never need batteries replaced, service, or replacement. They also don’t have any issues with false positive detonations. If the collar can be deactivated to be removed for servicing/off duty/retirement/replacement/etc then it can be hacked and replaced with a placebo.
_diyar 1mo ago
Hijacking this comment to ask about Huberman, can he really be lumped in with the other two in that list? I listen to his podcast for a while and stopped when I realized most of what he is talking about is marginal stuff or ”new research suggests”, which I found less interesting. But has he really ever been a grifter selling complete bunk? Not talking about the ad-segments, which are of course payed endorsements.
- Arodex 1mo ago
  Well, here he is promoting complete bunk, so the question answers itself.
  - theF00l 1mo ago
    That is fair, especially on this occasion. On the other hand I have found some of his material very helpful, particularly around sleep and helping me maintain my circadian rhythm.
  - _diyar 1mo ago
    > You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr. This sentence does not imply that Huberman has endorsed this product.
- n4r9 1mo ago
  This article seems like a fairly comprehensive run down of the issues: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberman-lab-health-advice-podcast-debunk.html https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma...
- cheshire_cat 1mo ago
  You might be interested in these critiques of Huberman: "So, Should You Trust Andrew Huberman?" by Dr. Andrea Love: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberman-lab-health-advice-podcast-debunk.html https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma... "Is Self-Help Guru PhD a Womanizer and Pseudoscientific Nonsense Broker? | Andrew Huberman Analysis" by Dr. Todd Grande: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW3daJggoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW3daJggoQ He definitely has content that is helpful to people, but there's probably better sources for the same information.
diryawish 1mo ago
Incredible quote, such great context. No wonder people trust the science so much.

adaml_623 1mo ago

For anyone who has never heard of the Q Collar I'm copy pasting a google summary with a tiny bit of trimming. My first uninformed thought is, "OMG that sounds insane" " Q-Collar is a C-shaped, non-invasive silicone neck band designed to help protect athletes' brains from repetitive sub-concussive impacts. It is worn during high-impact contact sports like American football, soccer, lacrosse, and hockey. How It Works - Jugular Compression: The band applies light, safe pressure to the sides of the user's jugular veins. Increased Blood Volume: This mild pressure slightly slows blood outflow from the head, increasing blood volume in the venous structures surrounding the brain. Reduced Brain "Slosh": The extra blood acts like an internal cushion or seatbelt, minimizing the movement (sloshing) of the brain inside the skull during an impact. "

conartist6 1mo ago

> Before posting on PubPeer, Shane spoke to the authors directly to alert them of his concerns and request the data—the 2021 article has a data sharing agreement—but they denied his request because he was critical of their work. What little fucking shitbags. I surely hope they don't call themselves scientists

TheJoeMan 1mo ago

“You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr.” This sentence seems unnecessary and perhaps inflammatory, I think it detracts from the article.