> > > THAT would be your answer to the parents????? "Suck it up,
> > > folks; no need to be irrationally emotional about this li'l ole
> > > aberration. It's only your kids lying dead in there."
> >
> > Am I supposed to feel like an evil human being because I put
> > more faith in black-and-white numbers from a responsible study
> > than in the lament of some sobbing mother? Well, then, I'll
> > just have to accept that. My children will have to live with
> > the consequences of what I do, not with how I feel. Sorrow
> > won't accomplish anything. If that makes me inhuman, then
> > that's one more reason to desire to become transhuman--perhaps
> > a better-designed being won't be so distracted by emotional
> > reactions from making the right choices.
> >
> > Wow, some actual transhuman/extropian content on this thread!
> Your response may be clinically described as sociopathic, for it
> makes no distinction between people and things.
When I earlier said that one of your responses showed either a lack of reading comprehension or dishonesty, I guessed the latter. I now see that it is both. In what possible stretch of the English language can you interpret these words as anything of the sort? Where have I ever said or even implied that I do not feel special reverence for sentient beings, or that I do not suffer from their loss? If you read my actual words as I wrote them and not the imaginary meaning your mind is putting into them, you'd see that I not only treasure humans but human feelings as well; I just refuse to base decisions on those feelings instead of reason. If you believe feelings are not just a wonderful part of being human, but also a useful guide to decision-making in their own right, well, I have no respect for that belief, and we'll have to leave it at that.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC