[extropy-chat] Gravity, Energy, Mass and my mother

[Samantha Atkins]

On Mar 10, 2006, at 2:37 PM, ben wrote:
>
> Emlyn, No!
>
> I'm all for starving trolls, but i don't (and obviously neither does
> Jef) think that Anna is a troll.
>
> She seems to me to be someone without the kind of scientific education
> that a lot, probably most, of the people here have, and that causes  
> her
> to seem naive or even trollish. I don't believe that she is either. If
> someone is willing and eager to learn things, it seems perverse to try
> to deny them simply because they are saying things that seem silly.  
> They
> /aren't/ silly things, they are just uninformed.
>

I was unaware that this list has as part of its charter the education  
of people who believe, for instance, that gravity determines which  
people we meet in our lives.   A mailing list cannot be all thinks to  
all people.

> Jef is doing a great thing by trying to explain concepts that are
> probably foreign to Anna, and she is doing an even better thing by  
> being
> unafraid to show her ignorance of certain things, and of asking for  
> help
> in understanding. I think they are both, in their own ways, displaying
> very admirable qualities.

Assertion of various non-sensical things is asking for help?  Even if  
it is the above question about the purpose of the list remains.


- samantha