From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 01:22:07 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote
>
>>What's good about defending a country? I certainly don't give a damn
>>about the US or any other country, and I have little patience for
>>patriots of any stripe. How about standing up for /principles/
>>instead of countries like a rational forward-looking person should?
>>The old concept of "country" is one whose time is passed. Let's move
>>into the future and support the rights of sovereign sentient beings.
>
> The future won't be here for a while, and you surely understand
> the evolutionary forces behind patriotism. Don't you agree that
> countries whose citizens are endowed with patriotism survived
> throughout history whereas countries not so endowed perished?
ERROR 514: Group selection postulated in evolutionary argument.
> Yet you are not annoyed by the irrational love of a mother
> for her child. Why are you annoyed, then, by the irrational
> love of someone for his or her nation?
Body count.
I was born with quite a few emotions that strike me as not worth keeping.
Perhaps others feel differently. That is why it is not the emotion that
is the transpersonal issue, but rather its consequences.
But on a personal level, if one must feel patriotic than it is absurd to
feel that patriotism for the USA. Go Earth!
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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