In a message dated 1/27/2000 4:40:08 PM Pacific Standard Time,
d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au writes:
<< she wasn't stupid or unimaginative (she read some sort
of sf, after all). It was a salutary experience, giving me some sense of
what the *real* opposition might be like, out there in the world in its
teeming blithering bigoted billions. Urp. >>
Let's try the compassionate viewpoint.
Bigotry is caued by what? Almost all bigots share one thing.
Fear.
Specifically fear of the unknown, and of the strange and different...
Fear of AI is. IMHO, a fairly rational response, given that even we
technophiles have debates over whether a Super Intelligence will have an itch
to elliminate us en masse due to our imperfect nature... or pick any other
malevolent SI scenario we have hashed over.
People who are in intense fear, as one friend of mine said once, look a lot
like assholes... behave a lot like assholes... sometimes they do scary
things...
Anyway... I understand how upsetting that must have been to you, and I am so
sorry you had to endure an outburst like that.. but if it happens again, i
wouldn't be surprised, and I'd try to remember... it's not "us vs. them",
...really....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:02:48 MDT