Max More wrote:
> Okay, just to settle this matter (because it
> bothers me that I didn't personally correct any
> misconceptions personally) here is what I wrote
> to Brian last August. (I've taken out Brian's
> paragraph since it was private mail.) It seems
> that I was going away and suggested that Brian
> forward my clarification, but he did not.
Yes. I thought it wouldn't be appropriate, since it was your
mistake, and would look, if not be, rather petty (especially
given what a tiny matter it was), so I wrote back, in response
to your quoted email here (deleted) saying that you should be
the one to correct it, since it was your (small) mistake. I
figured it would be a simple and less confusing way to proceed
if you, yourself simply forwarded your message to the list.
When you didn't do it, I was puzzled, but just figured you were
incredibly busy, and would get to it within a few days.
More than a few days went by, you hadn't gotten to it, and then,
around the same time, the nut started emailing me. At that
point, I thought it would be good to remind you, since it would
help you as well as me to corrct the matter. At least one other
person on Transhuman had made allegations of Extropian Institute
plagiarism (I don't recall that he mentioned you by name), and
it seemed easy enough to show good conduct with respect to one
of the matters at hand, so might as well do it.
But then you still didn't forward the email (or write another).
At THAT point, to be honest with you, I found it difficult to
maintain my previous view of you. Not that anything had changed
dramatically, but there was now a small question mark where none
had previously existed. A VERY small question mark, but still, a
question mark. Consider: I'm getting a barrage of emails from
this person who hates you (as I informed you), and you're
"refusing" (so it began to seem) to do one simple thing that
would go a long way towards settling my thoughts/feelings on
this, and maybe even the nutcase's (though not likely), so what
is going on?
Ultimately, an extremely small matter, of course. But I think it
left a slightly bad taste in my mouth. I'm really not sure. Its
being an extremely small matter can mean one of two very
different things, either: 1) who cares? or 2) why didn't you
correct it (given how small/simple it was to correct)? I tend
towards the former conclusion (though your response to my recent
posts make me wonder if I was gulagified far earlier than I have
imagined -- but we may have a chicken and egg problem here!).
It's been a while since I've thought about it. I've been
plagiarized in the past several times (involving more than a
stupid word -- no offense to you, I mean me!), so perhaps I'm
unduly sensitive to these things. Also, I've accidentally
(twice, in fact) used someone else's ideas (in one case my
advisor's -- oops!) without attribution, and felt very strongly
that what one does in these situations is immediately make
certain attribution is given. That's Job 1.
>From other post:
> If my
> failing to take action to publicly correct this
> misconception has contributed to the current heat,
> I am sorry.
I certainly hope not, but as someone who believes in the
unconscious, I suppose I can't be certain (but I COULD be
certain, after a while: ergo, I didn't just make an
unfalsifiable claim :)
> Certainly I did not do it
> deliberately. (Even if I were the source of all
> evil, it would be a stupid way to go about
> doing something wrong!)
Indeed, of course my conspiracy theorist correspondent had a
theory here: your post-book empire required possession of the
term....
(Well, then, I better get my book out FIRST :) -- "From Human to
Ultrahuman And Beyond: [not sure yet about subtitle]."
Best,
Brian.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:14:09 MDT