From: nanowave (nanowave@shaw.ca)
Date: Wed Mar 05 2003 - 10:41:46 MST
>>Robert writes:
>
>> So, *why* the blazes is the ExI list debating IRAQ when
>> it should be debating caloric intake?
Lee writes:
>Well, perhaps there's nothing wrong with debating both!? ;-)
But what's to debate? To quote Dr. Phil IIRC: "Who in their right mind
doesn't understand that eating at McDonald's every day is going to make you
fat?"
>> Just what part of the principle of "rational thinking"
>> is not being understood (e.g. saving more people is
>> perhaps better than saving fewer people)?
>This resumes a discussion about whether it's people's
>"lives" or people-years we wish to save. <snip>
Here we are getting to the crux of the matter. The word "lives" is not
sufficiently defined as to make these kinds of distinctions cut and dry.
It's an abstraction of the same quality as "peace" which can obviously be
interpreted a zillion different ways by a zillion different people. I
suspect the word "lives" may also be buried under layer upon layer of
unavoidable sapient racism.
So I suppose I'll now have to (bravely or stupidly) venture out into this
sociocultural DMZ for a few moments and then bid a hasty retreat.
When I say I'm concerned with saving "lives", I am probably concerned with:
-Minimizing pain and suffering (primarily sentient, but it's a clunky
sliding scale which descends all the way down to "that whatsoever possesseth
a nervous system")
-Maximizing happiness/joy/fulfillment/wonder etc. (ditto the above)
-Maximizing the spread of memes more like mine
-Minimizing the spread of memes less like mine
- And destroying memes (and their hosts) that pose a clear and present
danger to the continuing survival of memes more like mine as well as memes
less like mine.
(That last one is a matter for which I ultimately rely upon my own judgment
to determine based upon a good faith attempt at objectively examining the
memes in question along with whatever evidence and judgments of others I see
as credible, accessible, and pertinent at the time. - Needs work, I know, so
I'd forgive all of you for not just handing over the keys to the matrix
server until I get it all worked out sufficiently :-)
Russell Evermore
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Mar 05 2003 - 10:50:25 MST