[extropy-chat] Wikipedia entry on the Proactionary Principle

[Brett Paatsch]

The Avantguardian wrote:


> The Doctrine of Pre-emption can be succinctly phrased
> as "Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you." 

>This still leaves much room for honorable conduct. 

With my evolutionary psychology and game theory hat on,
I think this is wrong Stu, (i.e. I don't see that it leave *much* 
room for honorable conduct) unless of course the pre-emption
is of the sort that would be recognized as welcome assistance,
or "cooperation", otherwise it looks like "defection" that is
justifiable only by placing an artibrary date or event as the
beginning and ignoring what took place earlier.

Let me clarify, the world did not start on 9/11. 

9/11 came after 8/11 and before 10/11. When it is chosen
as a baseline for action then it is chosen somewhat arbitrarily
wouldn't you agree?

<Note for newbies: To my mind 9/11 was a bad thing,
no question about that. It just wasn't the world's first bad
thing and it probably isn't helpful to imagine that those
who caused planes to crash into buildings were just
crazy when they were clearly acting with coordination
and purpose. To them they may have been retaliating not
for 9/11 but for offenses done at some other place or date>

Brett Paatsch