From: Joshua Fox (joshua@joshuafox.com)
Date: Tue Aug 25 2009 - 01:54:35 MDT
Aleksei,
> You would do well to try to learn from e.g. Nick Bostrom's style of going
about things.
How would you describe the important aspects of that style?
For my part, I find quite a few people who accept the basic argument about
FAI as reasonable, although they rarely then proceed to considering it as
urgent. The other common response is to consider the whole thing to far out
to be worth considering for long --- as if I told them that it essential
define our ethical and practical approach to future encounters with
extraterrestrial alien species _now_, before it is too late.
Joshua
On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 8:15 PM, Aleksei Riikonen <aleksei@iki.fi> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Rick Schwall <r.schwall@verizon.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > However, I have found common folks surprisingly receptive to some of our
> key
> > ideas, as long as I present them as "it could be that ..." rather than
> > asserting them as True.
>
> I'm glad to hear you don't assert them as True. Indeed they *aren't*,
> and you have a psychological challenge you should face if a part of
> you would want to present them as such.
>
> > 3.C.i. Humanity has been bad, and should fear the coming of an unbiased
> > Power.™
>
> Not that I'd endorse the content of your statement, but you're doing
> all of us interested in the topics you comment on a disservice by
> using such unnecessarily dramatic language. It makes you sound like a
> cultist.
>
> It's not important to fear anything, and it's not important to go
> around pronouncing "Humanity has been bad". When you see a complex
> threat, what's important is to keep your head cool and calmly think
> what are the useful things you could do about it.
>
> You would do well to try to learn from e.g. Nick Bostrom's style of
> going about things.
>
> --
> Aleksei Riikonen - http://www.iki.fi/aleksei
>
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