Re: Genius -- the evidence

Michael Wiik (mwiik@netcom.com)
Sat, 25 Jan 1997 23:34:39 -0800 (PST)


Eliezer Yudkowsky writes:
>
> [...] *People* take
> precedence over *generalizations*!
>
> [...] I believe that the truth takes precedence. But I don't believe that
> this applies to conversation or any interactions with others, only to
> self-honesty.

Which is it?

> [...] To quote my own humble opinion, one should
> never publish a statistic about how many rapes are required to produce a
> single living baby. It's a valid statistic on which valid plans for
> social action might be based, but it's still a dangerous statistic that
> should never be published.

Why? Perhaps you could supply us a list of other statistics that should
never be published.

The other day I saw this show about the class of 2000 or some such. The
principal of this school was explaining why pagers weren't allowed in
school. "They are considered drug paraphinalia".

As if that explains anything. I wished I had been a smart-ass student
in that class, I would have asked for a complete list of other common
items which are also considered drug paraphinalia. I guess this means
that school administrators can't use pagers either.

Can a race which refuses to deal with facts become transhumans?

Wasn't there someone else who invited extropians to a book burning?

Just wondering,
-Mike

> --
> 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.
>
>
>

-- 
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             Michael Wiik             Messagenet Communications Research
           mwiik@netcom.com                 http://messagenet.com
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