Re: POLITICS: Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy

Mark Grant (mark@unicorn.com)
Thu, 23 Jan 1997 12:30:43 +0000


On Mon, 20 Jan 1997 N.BOSTROM@lse.ac.uk wrote:

> Mark Grant wrote :

Actually I didn't, not that it really matters...

[UN]
> I agree that this is a matter of opinion. But you would
> probably agree that it is *one of* the most trustable powers
> in this respect?

No. The UN has historically been a tool of the US government (or at least
it usually votes the way that the US government votes).

> Let me ask you a question. If there were a little machine
> which one could have in one's pocket, and which could cause
> you and me and all our friends to die immediately, would you
> prefer that only one or two persons got hold of such
> gadgets, or would you feel safer if 50 000 individuals and
> organisations had them?

Strawman. You're postulating a device against which we have no defence,
when in real life there is some defences against everything. Even if you
come up with a weapon that can destroy all life on Earth (e.g. the huge
asteroids with mass-drivers that we've been talking about in other
threads) that would simply imply that we should get off of it.

Show me a weapon that we have no defence against and I'll take this more
seriously. But I might well prefer the risk of death to living in the kind
of police state that controlling the technology would require.

Mark

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