From: nanowave (nanowave@shaw.ca)
Date: Sat Feb 01 2003 - 23:22:16 MST
I too have been feeling extremely depressed since learning of this tragedy
early this morning (on extropians). I've read every post in this thread
hoping for some kind of clarity as to precisely why it has affected me on
such a profound level.
The "losing seven of the best of the best" angle just doesn't seem to
resonate with me that much. Although I very much sympathize with the
bereaved families, I can't say I feel a greater degree of sadness simply
because of _who_ has died, or their various pedigrees. Call me strange
(hopefully not insensitive), but I suspect that had my morning started with
the news that a van carrying seven fetching prostitutes had just been
crushed under a commuter train, I might have felt a similar pang of sadness
for the essential loss of human life. In fact, the alpha male side of me
might have felt (gulp) even *more* loss.
Yet overall, this tragedy has affected me more than reading about 7 *times*
7 red lights going out under the wheels a commuter train, so what gives?
Can it be that I grieve for the loss of something more personally
heartrending than the deaths of seven individuals (however bright,
promising, brave, or whatever) that I have never actually met?
I recall reading somewhere that "to an engineer bad press is spelled:
Hindenberg, Titanic, or perhaps Pinto" Well, I'm not an engineer, but as a
technophile and transhumanist I suspect something similar might be going on
in my head.
Perhaps tonight I'll dream of standing naked before my grade school class
with tears streaming down my cheeks as students taunt me with questions such
as: HOW, HOW, HOW, will you control jillions of durable, microscopic robots
that breed even faster than rabbits, if thousands of scientists, engineers,
computers, backup systems, and checks and balances can't even keep one big
stupid macro vehicle from becoming an expensive photogenic meteor?
Well, goodnight to you all. I'm sincerely sorry for your loss, however you
may feel it.
Russell Evermore
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