Re: The "stupid" masses

Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Sat, 28 Dec 1996 17:50:47 -0600

> To simplify, we have two dangers here: cocaine and high-velocity
> lead pellets. You favor unleashing the latter to rein in the former.
> I consider the former to be less of a threat than the latter. I'm
> particularly appalled by your stance given that the history of the
> last twenty-five years shows that all attempts to use the latter
> to control the former merely make both scourges worse. The history
> of the prohibition of alcohol (another neurological scourge) earlier
> this century in the US tells a similar tale.

If bullets were the only way to control crack, I wouldn't use them,
because they wouldn't work. I know the story, too. That's why I favor
biological warfare instead of coercive force.

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.