[extropy-chat] transhumanism=doomsday cult b.s?

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Russell Wallace wrote:
> It's difficult to reliably distinguish in advance between visionary 
> ideas and wishful thinking, but I will suggest as a general guideline 
> looking at the following categories of claims:
> 
> X is *possible* vs X is *easy*.
> X *could* happen vs X *will* happen.
> X can be achieved *someday* vs X can be achieved *within a specific time*.
> 
> In each case claims of the former type have very often proved true, 
> whereas claims of the latter type usually have not, so we should be 
> receptive to the former but much more skeptical of the latter.

"Me too."

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence