[extropy-chat] Why smart people defend bad ideas

[The Avantguardian]

--- BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> <http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay40.htm>
> 
> Nice essay, with lots of home truths.
> 
Yup. And some pretty funny not so truths-

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For example, if you are skidding out of control at
95mph in your broken down Winnebago on an ice covered
interstate, when a semi-truck filled with both poorly
packaged fireworks and loosely bundled spark plugs
slams on its brakes, it’s not the right time to
discuss with your passengers where y’all would like to
stop for dinner. But as ridiculous as this scenario
sounds, it happens all the time.
--------------------------------------

It does? To who? Whoever that guy is I have to hand it
to him. When I feel my tires lose traction about the
only thing I can say is "oh shit!"

------------------------------------
“Well, it's gotten us this far, and it’s the best
system we have”. Well, maybe. But if you were in that
broken down Winnebago up to your ankles in gasoline
from a leaking tank, smoking a cigarette in each hand,
you could say the same thing. 
----------------------------------------------

Maybe- if you're the poster child for natural
selection. 

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As social animals we are heavily influenced by how the
people around us behave, and the quality of our own
internal decision making varies widely depending on
the environment we currently are in. (e.g. Try to
write a haiku poem while standing in an elevator with
15 opera singers screaming 15 different operas, in 15
different languages, in falsetto, directly at you vs.
sitting on a bench in a quiet stretch of open woods). 
----------------------------------------
My spring day ruined--
Fifteen fat ladies singing,
Fourteen floors to go.
:)




The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

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