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On Wed, 7 Nov 2001, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> Where have I heard the name Barry Bloom before?
The article, quoting Bloom:
"How do you keep new bioweapons from happening?" Bloom said. "You have
to ... create a very strong moral culture of scientists that worry
about the uses of science."
Biologists have something to learn from psychologists, political
scientists and game theorists, it seems. The 'moral culture' argument
is a weak one. If we understood memetics well enough to reach a
sleeper agent sitting in on a mol bio class, we'd be living in a world
almost as different from ours as nanotopia or AItopia would
be. Compare:
"How do you keep airplanes from being plowed into buildings? You have
to create a very strong moral culture of pilots that worry about the
uses of airplanes."
Or for that matter, many schools of martial arts are already
thoroughly infused with a moral culture-- a pacifist one in
fact. Which does nothing to prevent strictly hands-on dojos from
arising... and nothing to prevent students who don't care about the
moral and spiritual dimensions of martial arts (or already have their
own, non-pacifist moral schemae) from enrolling. Among these students
were Atta and his gang of murderers.
Moral indoctrination only works on individuals who are willing or
susceptible to it. Any dangerous information that moral indoctrination
is joined to can be just as easily be separated from it. Information
is annoying like that.
- --
* I believe that the majority of the world's Muslims are good, *
* honorable people. If you are a Muslim and want to reassure me and *
* others that you are part of this good, honorable majority, all *
* you need to say are nine simple words: "I OPPOSE the Wahhabi cult *
* and its Jihad." *
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