[extropy-chat] My error (was My Dilemma)

[The Avantguardian]

No problem. Thanks for the correction. I am glad
Damien is back too. :)

-Stu



--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:

> Apologies to Stuart, the Avantguardian. It was he,
> not Damien who wrote
> the below:
> 
> Damien B. [should have been Avantguardian] writes
> 
> > --- Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > I find vindicating technical progress by killing
> > > people and destroying infrastructure morally
> abhorrent.
> > 
> > Even leaving aside morality as being fuzzy and
> > relative, it is still highly irrational. By common
> > sense cause and effect, one reaps what one sows.
> So if
> > you only justify investing in technological
> progress
> > in the name of war,
> 
> I agree, at least up to whatever sense it makes to
> talk
> about societies as a whole "choosing" anything.
> 
> > you get the ironic imbalance of
> > capability that we have today:
> > 
> > One man can invoke splinters of the sun to
> vaporize
> > millions of people at the touch of a button. Yet
> we
> > can't cure the common cold let alone poverty, old
> age,
> > and death.
> 
> Maybe the former are/were just a lot easier?  After
> all,
> we did get good sanitation in the west (finally)
> even
> before we invented the machine gun. (Talk about
> screwed
> incentives!)
> 
> > Investing in fear pays dividends in terror.
> Investing
> > in love pays dividends of abundance. It isn't
> rocket
> > science nor does it have to be.
> 
> Again, this is an act that one fears to undertake
> alone.
> (Did you back in the cold war days favor, I wonder,
> unilateral disarmament by those countries where you
> were free to give out such suggestions? I am very
> glad
> that Western nations did not succumb to those
> memes.)
> 
> For sure, we are glad that over the long haul
> history
> seems to gradually favor peace over war.
> 
> I also agree that war probably retards wealth
> creation,
> even given the peculiar types of technology that
> seem
> to arise in 20th century wars (probably other tech
> would have come along sooner in place of them).
> 
> Lee
> 
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com