[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles - the b word again

[Brett Paatsch]

Harvey wrote:

> > > Kevin wrote:
> > > > I am more inclined to believe that ....
> > >
> > > I know. Your language gives that away. Resist, resist. Keep the 
> > > meme-pool clean. Try inclining to posit.
> > >
> > > - Brett
> 
> I am not sure this is any better.  To my hearing, saying "I believe
> that...." sounds like a long-term assumption, such as "I thought...."  To
> say "I posit..." sounds like it was just made up on the spot, as in "I
> guess...."

I am not sure what you point is Harvey, but as I've already written
what feels like about 3 books on the dangers of the word "believe"
in the last week - what the hell, I'll take another go at clarifying.

People who naturally use the word "believe" in their inner dialog
will of course gravitate towards using it in their expressions and 
communications (speaking/writing) as well. And when they use it
more rather than less other folks hear it more rather than less. The
imprecise word meme gets propagated by use. It even picks up
credibility by association with smart thought when smart folks
imprudently se it. 

This matters and it matters profoundly because we live in democracies
and in democracies everyone believers (foggy thinkers that fear what
they don't understand and don't understand a lot because they are
foggy thinkers) and reasoners both get one vote each. The believers
are voting against increases in the rate of change in technological areas
like nanotech and biotech because they fear change and most of them
think the afterlife is already taken care of. I don't fear change I fear 
being believed to death by the majority who will not only not save
themselves but will actually vote against the technologies that are my 
means to improve my life.  Democracy is a good thing but it empowers
fools to ban medicines and life saving technologies if they in the majority
too. 

Here's a link to an online thesaurus http://thesaurus.reference.com/.

I don't care what synonym(s) people use instead of the word believe
I just want the "good guys" in the meme-wars to stops using the 
"bad guys" imprecise brain-fart propaganda. Of course the bad
guys aren't *really* "bad guys" they are just dopey. But in 
democracies where its one vote each and the dopes can vote to
ban the technologies they don't understand dopiness left unchecked
can be fatal. Because dopes vote too and there are more of them.
I am asking folk to not use and not encourage dopiness in 
democracies by removing the most harmful  and prolific example 
of dope-speak.

If you look at the synonyms for the word believe in a thesaurus
you will see that some of them cluster around faith-based world
views and some don't. Amongst the class that don't are swags of 
useful synonyms for budding good-meme warriors that have
not yet liberated themselves from the dopiness of believing. If
instead of using the word believe one uses a non-faith-based 
synonym then one will not be propagating/endorsing the believe
meme and not endorsing a faith-based word view.
 
Its not important what word is used to replace "I believe" or its
variants, there are a number of words that can be used and some
are better for different circumstances. It is important to stop 
endorsing the believing meme which dumbs down democracies
whose populations can vote to ban the technologies that we are
looking to use to allow ourselves to continue to live.  

A key thing is that as one uses the "I believe" phrase less in 
communication one also uses it less in one's internal dialog 
and one starts to think clearer. But one has to try it for a while
to find out. Try it Harvey. Try it. Pick any synonym(s) for believe
you like and practice using them, different ones in different 
circumstances (as you are right some sound better and are more
precise than others in different circumstance) and watch how
dopey the believers start to sound. It may actually help prolong
your life. More to the point for me - it will help me save or 
prolong mine because in democracies dopes can vote against 
all the technologies I want to see develop so I don't have to die
like a dope. 

Regards,
Brett 

[who really hopes this is getting through to some folks
as I can't hold back the water in the dam even on this list
forever ]