[extropy-chat] Wireheading

[Anders Sandberg]

BillK wrote:
> On 10/5/06, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>>
>> On Oct 2, 2006, at 3:16 AM, BillK wrote:
>> > You do realise that anything significant that you post on extropy-chat
>> > (or anywhere on the internet) is likely to immediately update your
>> > Homeland Security Profile?
>>
>> The day I live in fear of these meat heads and their silly profiles is
>> the day I disappear completely.
>>
>
> That is an admirable political posture to take, but back in the real
> world a higher level of caution is more advisable.

I think it is better to err on the side of being too open and radical than
being too cautious. Sure, it increases the risk of being logged in various
lists of 'subversives' and maybe getting uncomfortable employment
interviews. But do we really want to work for companies that can't stand
our  true persona? Do we want to make it easier for the Powers That Be to
scan the subversive lists, or do we salt them with lots of
not-quite-subversives?

The chilling effects of self-censorship are nasty. When nobody else
expresses your view you will not dare speak it either, either because you
think there is something wrong with it or because you will be noticed by
nasties. And the more areas nobody dares to talk about the more fearful we
will be.

I think part of the self-censorship we see among some people about Islam
right now was primed by the self-censorship due to political correctness.
Once you internalise the idea that one should never say anything that
might upset some group (either because they might get sad or violent or
because others might criticise oneself) you become a force for instilling
this meme in others.

> Your mother was right.  Never, ever, put something in writing unless
> you would be happy to see it as front page news.

Exactly. And I think this is reason to dare to be radical, because that is
the only way to spread the counter-memes of open, sometimes noisy, debate.

I'd gladly admit on this list that I had used illegal drugs, but to my
embarrasment I haven't. But I have indeed mocked Allah (and most other
deities and religions I have ever heard of), questioned the democratic
system, the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the EU farming subsidies and
the Swedish Model. I have dreamt erotic dreams about blue anodized zinc
cubes. As well as squeezed past the (Swedish) Queen in a doorway somewhat
rudely. So there!

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University