[extropy-chat] Religious fanatic? Blame it on 'god gene'

[Eliezer Yudkowsky]

Damien Broderick wrote:
> 
> 2) What Spike said, with bells on. Try to remember what happened when 
> Robert Bradbury posted a series of apparently genocide-encouraging posts 
> not long ago. This is the extropian list, not a hangout for wannabe 
> death squads.
> 
> 3) If anyone wishes to explore the idea of interfering with genes 
> conducive to spiritual experiences and religious behavior, why not try 
> positing a virus that *silences* the genes, rather than murdered their 
> carriers? This is also pretty damned totalitarian as a notion, but 
> markedly less vile.

Spider Robinson would disagree.  As the hero of Spider's _Mindkiller_ said, 
"I have made it a rule never to tamper with anyone's memories if I can 
accomplish my purpose by merely killing them."  I think I'm not with Spider 
on this, especially if the tampering is reversible, but I can see where 
Spider is coming from.

> 4) Then you should go and read the great novel using this very idea, 
> Jamil Nasir's DISTANCE HAZE (Bantam, 2000), where a reductionist 
> scientist of considerable subtlety edits out such genes, in vitro, from 
> his daughter's genome. The fictional outcome to this thought experiment 
> might give even an ardent atheist pause.

Logical fallacy of generalization from imaginary evidence.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence