From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Sat Aug 02 2003 - 02:02:20 MDT
Responding to Lee:
> > Genocide sucks.
>
> This is the sort of dumb phrase that does *not* advance
> understanding. Worse, had you not just written a clear
> and eloquent (even if overstated in a couple of places)
> rational analysis, then one would conclude from the
> sound bite that perhaps such rational analysis was not
> ready to hand, or perhaps not even possible.
My point was that the idea is so useless that we really need not consider
it, or at least can put it right down near the bottom of a prioritised list
of things to ponder. I also think that football sucks and is useless, and
relegate it to the same scrap heap of dumb ideas that I don't need.
> > We have the whole space of wonderful, complex extropian
> > ideas to play in; can we drop this moronic crap?
>
> What I simply do not understand is how threatened you
> sound and feel. We *do* have convincing and thoughtful
> arguments rejecting a great many bad things, and we should
> not feel put upon to demonstrate from time to time.
> Some doubter may ask over and over why evolution works,
> and it would be a big mistake to say that enunciating
> the reasons was a waste of time.
Sometimes it takes a bit of heat under the collar to motivate writing a post
like that one. Maybe I'm just human after all. Emotions will creep in at all
kinds of inconvenient times, the pesky things.
I was pretty angry at the time. I have this hazy idea that genocide is at
the extreme edge of a package of very nasty memes that are gaining currency
nowadays in western geopolitics, a package that includes xenophobia,
intolerance and self righteousness. Fear of the unknown, and ignorant petty
selfishness, qualities which seem to be encouraged more strongly as time
wears on, really will bring down the dreams of all transhumanists.
Emlyn
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