[extropy-chat] The Consensus

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003, Dirk Bruere wrote:

> Or are you some US gun nut who thinks being tapped on the shoulder by a
> beggar is an assault that can or should be met with automatic fire from the
> assault rifle you habitually carry?

Dirk, although I do not view this as an A.H. attack I would view
it as an inflamatory statement.  Perhaps it would be polite
to label such a question as [rhetorical question].

In fact the days when one carried guns for personal self defense
in the U.S. generally ended perhaps a century ago with the civilizing
of the "wild wild west".  Of course arguments can be made that there
are areas of inner cities in the U.S. where carrying a gun may be a
reasonable idea.  But one would have to ask why any intelligent transhumanist
would be doing in areas that potentially pose such high risk factors?
Living or working in such high risk areas seems to be counter-productive
to the idea that one wants to extend ones potential lifespan.

I personally moved from San Francisco to Seattle because I did not
like the earthquake risk in S.F.  That was before it was generally
known what the earthquake risks were in Seattle (so my strategy
was somewhat flawed).  It would be logical for transhumanists
to seek out the safest possible places to live and that would
include places that have minimal instances of violent crimes
as well as natural hazards.

Robert