Re: Are guns extropian? (Yes they are)

den Otter (neosapient@geocities.com)
Mon, 13 Jul 1998 01:17:09 +0200

maxm wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: den Otter <neosapient@geocities.com>
> >> Max M [maxm@maxmcorp.dk] wrote:
> >> >One thing is for shure. For most Europeans this gun debate is a complete
> >> >turn-off, and can be a very negative factor when reading this list.
> There is
> >> >far to much debate on this list concerning guns!!!!
> >
> >Shit Max, did you have to write that? We already have a severe image
> >problem when it comes to these things :-(
>
> Who "we" has an image problem?

We Europeans.

> And who thinks we have this image problem?

Freedom-loving Americans on this list (yeah, yeah, sounds like some bs propaganda, but they *do* love freedom, which includes the right to keep and bear arms, and they *are* Americans -- hence freedomloving Americans).

> >> Which is one reason why I don't think most Europeans understand the
> >> implications of what we're talking about. Seems to me that guns are the
> >> litmus test of whether you've really considered the things we talk about
> >> on this list. If you're scared of people having guns, then how are you
> >> going to handle nanotech, SIs, etc; technologies which are far more of
> >> a threat than a wimpy little gun ever will be?
>
> Well taking this argument to the extreme we ought to give everybody their
> own little private nuke. Then we will really understand how to handle these
> problems.

The point is that it is rather strange that people who deeply dislike guns because they're "dangerous killing machines", think so positively of the future, which will deliver powerful tools of (mass) destruction into the hands of more people than ever before.