>From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
>My reaction, on the whole, is that people are trying to forcibly
>make this into one of the most significant events in world
>history. I don't think it is. Not intrinsically. I understand
>the impulse to magnify the importance. One doesn't want several
>thousand people to have died for something that doesn't ultimately
>change the course of history. But I think we'll see similar
>events in the future, and I don't think those will change the
>course of history either. It's just a lot of unnecessary,
>pointless deaths.
I have spoken to survivors of Pearl Harbor who say this is bigger.
You seem to be missing the point. This is going to be a war against
organized terrorism, after this there may never be terrorism of the
sort we know now. There may be isolated cases sure, but the world
may come out from all this with the resolve to never let organized
terrorism exist in the world again.
I'd call that significant.
I think people are missing part of the significance of shutting
down air travel temporarily. Partly it is to prevent further acts,
but it is also to trap any accomplices, so we can round them up.
They are trapped here.
>If the US does do anything real, militarily, it will probably
>involve more death and destruction than was caused by the
>destruction of the World Trade Center, dozens or hundreds of bombs
>instead of two planes, dropped on some dirt-poor country far less
>capable of dealing with the disasters resulting from each and
>every bomb impact, and the only real end result will be more
>hatred of the United States. I don't expect that will stop the
>United States from doing it anyway.
We want the people who did this, plain and simple, and we will stop
at nothing to get them. Anything or anybody who tries to stand in
the way will be destroyed.
But that's not all there is to it, we want to eliminate organized
terrorism forever, period.
>This is pretty much how I expected the future to go. If we're
>lucky, we'll make it to the Singularity inside the decade and we
>won't see weapons of mass destruction used on major cities during
>that interval. But if we aren't that lucky, I won't be surprised.
If we eliminate organized terrorism we may never have to face these
scenarios.
An idea worth dying, (and killing) for.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
Disclosure notice: currently "plonked"
"Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com>
"Party of Citizens"<citizens@vcn.bc.ca>
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