Re: Raising kids [was Re: Freedom or death? ]

Paul G. Bassett (pbassett@hermes.Netron.COM)
Tue, 19 Aug 1997 17:17:17 -0400


YakWaxx@aol.com wrote:

> In the long-term we will have sensory-rich physically safe environments for
> both adults and children. [snip] If children are in an environment where they are
> physically safe there is no need for any such parenting.

"In the long-term" is a qualifier that makes the prediction irrefutable.
(If true -- QED; else ask again later.) Hence the prediction is
fundamentally unscientific in the Popperian sense.

It is well known that only a countable infinity of problems are
solvable. That is, for all but a vanishingly small fraction of problems,
no solution algorithms can exist. For example, problems whose boundary
conditions are inconsistent are unsolvable, and are legion. In other
words, any post-human society, existing in vastly more complex
environments than exist today, will be just as riddled with
inappropriate solutions to their problems -- trade-offs with unwanted
side-effects. Thus the above prediction is not only unscientific, it is
an utopian illusion. Some sort of parenting will always be necessary,
and the sooner we bend our minds to thinking about good ways to
(meta)parent, the sooner we can develop a workable post-human society.

Paul Bassett