From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 10:56 AM
> Greg Burch wrote:
> >
> > This list has attracted a majority of people from the
> > sci-tech side of the "great divide" since its inception and also
attracts a
> > pretty young crowd. It also has a lot of subscribers who've read a lot
of
> > science fiction, in which radical plot devices get thrown around like
game
> > pieces in a simulation. None of these factors is conducive to
engendering a
> > high level of discussion about social, political and cultural issues on
> > short notice in the face of an emotionally shocking crisis.
>
> Oh? Really?
No personal offense intended, Eli, since I realize you fit this description
to a "T". And do note the rest of my post, in which I said that the folks
who are steeped in history haven't acquitted themselves significantly
better.
But I would let the point stand: The fact is that meaningful knowlege of
history and culture is built up in a slow, painstaking manner over a long
period of time, and real wisdom takes even longer. Please understand that
there should be no doubt about the deep reverence I hold for science and
engineering and the real respect and affection I have for the people who
pursue them. I'm a "science groupie".
There are certainly scientific and mathematical tools that can enhace and
amplify an understanding of history, culture and society, from game theory
to evolutionary psychology. But much of the core methodology of good
reasoning about these subjects is based on analogy and pattern-matching,
which can only be done successfully with a very large database.
Finally, as for science fiction, well, I love it, too, but the fact is that
the vast majority of it contains the shallowest thinking about social
issues. I recently weeded out the hundreds of SF books in my library when
we remodeled my study. There was an unbelievable amount of garbage in there
. . .
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:51 MDT