RE: thinking about the unthinkable

From: John B (discwuzit@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 06:58:32 MDT

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    [quote from: shade999@optonline.net on 2003-07-30 at 15:24:41]
    From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]
    On Behalf Of Charles Hixson
    Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 1:13 PM

    Paul Grant wrote:
    .............................................................................
    <me> it can, ergo why people discuss history. At least that occurred
    in our universe; thus its far more likely to be relevant. Thats the
    nice
    thing about history; there's so many different viewpoints to examine and
    choose from, and hindsight is always 20/20.

    Where do you get those perfect retroglasses? I could use a pair - and I'd LOVE
    to forward pairs to the SCOTUS, congresscritters, the executive branch, etc...

    What am I saying, they'll just look at the parts they want to see, anyways.
    *big sigh* Oh well, it was a good thought while it lasted...

    [charles] whereas in the book one
    knows, or can know, the complete context.

    <me> Thats facetious at best; you're reading a fiction book. Unless you
    are
    the author, you have absolutely no idea what the complete context
    of the book is; just what the author has currently decided to expose
    to the reader. Furthermore, there is nothing to indicate that a valid
    comparison can be necessarily drawn from the book mapping to our
    current reality. If they were doing a book review, than yes,
    I'ld agree <within the bounds of the book>; they are however,
    discussing real-life effects of the genocide of human beings.
    Pointing out the fictional character had second thoughts while
    nice, is really not that useful. Arguing the reason (or rationale)
    the author used to generate that particular fictional response
    might be. Using that rationale as conclusive proof however, is
    not.

    Agreed, it's a book. It's a fiction. However, if it's a good book (by which
    I mean that the reader doesn't have to suspend disbelief TOO much), it gives
    you a rough thought experiment, all nicely written out and shared amongst many
    people throughout the community of readers, to draw on to help explain other
    events.

    -snip-
    One final thought; what the media and movies (and yes, even
    fictional works in their heyday) represent does not indicate the
    norm in reality. Its a shame people have such difficulty in
    observing the difference.

    Good catch - and most fiction is escapist at best, agreed. However, even so,
    I find that I can explain libertarianism easier to a sci-fi crowd by invoking
    Heinlein, as just one example.

    -John

    ----
    This message was posted by John B to the Extropians 2003 board on ExI BBS.
    <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=67;action=display;threadid=56622>
    


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