Re: Present dangers to transhumanism

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Sat, 28 Aug 1999 20:40:36 -0500

Kathryn Aegis wrote:
>
> They might get that far, but they are definitely going to pick on the
> interview subjects first. A few weeks ago, I completed a round of
> 'hotseat' training [really great example deleted]

And speaking as someone who's been popularized... well, you know how books will carefully lead up to a point, and then, at the climax of the chapter, when any sane conversationalist would finally give in to the italics and exclamation points... they repeat every damn thing they've said for the last hundred pages, totally destroying the drama?

Well, this is because the climax of the chapter, or the book, is what gets quoted out of context. And that's especially true if you say anything exciting. So instead of making the dramatic point now that your readers are already convinced you're sane, you have to use soft words and repeat all your premises.

Needless to say, I found this out the hard way.

-- 
           sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
        http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
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