Always?

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
12 Aug 1998 17:09:32 +0200

TriStateF@aol.com writes:

> There are always going to be stereotypes and generalities with every group of
> people, at least it has been that way.

I think we need to have some warning sticker on the word "always", like on the cigarette packages: "The General Semantics Surgeon warns: careless use of the word "always" may lead to incorrect generalisations and mental pitfalls. Use with caution, especially among extropians" :-)

Is it possible to remove stereotypes and generalities among advancing trans- and posthumans? Cognitively, we likely will need our category prototypes, weakly founded generalisations and assumptions made on insufficient information to work in the real world, so some will likely remain unless we can all become Zen masters and just see the world as it is all the time, but it seems quite possible to find ways to reduce their semantic harm, for example by E-prime and similar linguistic tools, some education in applied cognitive psychology and ways of greacefully defuse them. Any ideas?

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y