Christopher Maloney wrote:
>
> Doug Jones wrote:
> >
> > I'm not annoyed at you, I feel sorry for you, son. I know you're
> > trying to advance the singularity, but hell, that's not a good
> > enough reason to postpone having a life.
> >
> > Intelligence does not preclude having a good time....
>
> Whoa, you need to back off! I agree whole-heartedly with the
> last poster that this kind of pressure is out of line, especially
> on this list. I don't get it so much anymore (I'm 36) but I
> sure remember how much patronizing comments like this ("I feel
> sorry for you, son") used to piss me off. Live and let live,
> and maybe you'll learn something, Pop.
Actually, not only is he allowed to make these kind of comments, but he's also allowed to dress me down for snapping at him. I try to live by Crocker's Rules, which means that if anything offends me, it's my fault - I've made a commitment to the mental discipline of anyone being able to tell me anything. And, in deed if not in thought, I've failed to keep up the discipline; and now the next guy who thinks I'm full of it will be more reluctant to tell me so.
Actually, my response wasn't addressed so much to Doug Jones in particular, so much as the culture in which I feel he is embedded. I really didn't intend for him to feel targeted. Crocker's Rules don't say anything about getting annoyed at ideas. But I can see how it would look that way.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way