Bleh, type I error.

[dvandom]

The human histamine response system is a clear case of favoring type I error (false positives) over type II error (false negatives). Evolutionally speaking, it's better to feel miserable for a month in the spring and a month in the fall than to die of a respiratory infection, but it still sucks to be at the high end of the survivable part of the combined curve this time of year.



Obviously, this is just the roughest of approximations, but it gives some idea of why we evolved something as annoying as allergies. Too weak or infrequent a histamine response, and stuff slips through (false negative) to kill us. Too strong, and our bodies freak out at the slightest provocation (false positive) and we die of anaphylactic shock. But there's no point where both graphs are zero, so we live in the valley where at least neither is likely to kill us...just make us miserable.

Comments

[5eh.livejournal.com]

I feels your pain.