Re: TERRORISM: looking for solutions

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Fri Sep 14 2001 - 21:56:56 MDT


"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
> > Actually, you would likely save more lives by finding a way around
> > diffusion of responsibility than if you found a way of curing terrorism.
>
> Actually, making life responsible seems more important to me than saving it.
> IOW, I don't want to save the lives of religious fanatics, I want to eliminate
> religious fanaticism. I suppose we could say that curing religious fanaticism
> would save lives, but even if we cure a religious fanatic, in a sense that
> would end one life (the religious fanatic's) to save another (the recovered
> religious fanatic's life).
>

That is extremely bogus reasoning. You eliminate ignorance and
wrong-headed thinking by introducing better understanding and
thinking. Minds change. A set of opinions and beliefs is not a
life.

>
> In that case, each and every one of us (transhumans and extropians and
> reasonable scientists) has the responsibility of finding a workable and
> effective way to rid the world of religious fanaticism and other brain
> diseases. Is it too late to focus on education? Probably. I think

The trouble is that you yourself are a bloddy fanatic! You call
everyone who has any religious belief "fanatic" and claim they
are brain-diseased. Tell you what, cure your own fanasticism by
your radical methods first. OK?

our best
> course of action is to help bring about a superintelligence that can foil the
> plans of religious fanatics (who want to fulfill the prophecies of
> Armageddon).
>

Sigh. We will create a god who will save us. Can you spell
p-r-o-j-e-c-t-i-o-n?

- samantha



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:46 MDT