[extropy-chat] Article: "Laughter at people's fears"

[Samantha Atkins]

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:16:38 -0800 (PST), Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> The author misrepresented the anti position with that emotional
> reaction of the woman at the end. The scientists were not laughing at
> people's fears, they were laughing at people's ignorance (like the
> legislators who were ignorantly afraid of 'eating DNA'). The fear of
> the luddites is primarily because of ignorance of biological facts, of
> cellular metabolism and structure, and of how DNA works.
> 

Do scientists and pro-tech folks never laugh at people's fears?   Are
you speaking here of only this one piece or the fear some floks have
towared these things in general?  Are you sure you can support a
statement that folks are primarily afraid out of ignorance of
biological facts in either case?   Are you doing a bit of the same,
belittling any legitimate fears by only harping on the ones you can or
claim you can ascribe to ignorance?

Seems to me there are more than a few folks who are quite well
informed in relevant areas that also express some fears and
trepidation.   We should at the least address those.

- samantha