[extropy-chat] an(other) Aussie visits Texas

[Damien Broderick]

At 04:35 PM 1/28/2007 -0500, Robert Bradbury wrote:

>You need to *seriously* be worried about encouraging me to give up 
>on humanity.
>
>Posting URLs pointing out how *stupid* or uninformed the average 
>U.S. citizen [2], particularly when they are misled [3], is causes 
>me to debate seriously whether jumping off a bridge or jumping into 
>the SI camp (of letting the damm "FAI" take over) might not be 
>seriously better than the alternate paths.

Calm down, pal. While the video is apparently not a spoof--in the 
sense that these are real vox pop responses--it is of course compiled 
from *heavily* selected fragments. I guess what's cumulatively 
hilarious/horrifying for Aussies in such a gag is the (mischievously 
over-emphasized) degree of ignorance and lack of ironic 
self-perception among a selection of citizens of the world's richest, 
most powerful and most influential nation. It might not be truly 
representative, but it is grimly funny and a bit worrying. One 
frequently sees surveys claiming that such colossal ignorance is 
widespread, but a clip like this brings it home with an ouch.

But don't jump off a bridge. We do need to find good solutions to 
these problems--not only to aging etc, but to the cheerfully accepted 
limitations on ordinary human intelligence and curiosity instilled by 
cultures like ours (maybe by all cultures, as you point out, of which 
many are far worse and more vicious).

Sorry to have soured your day, Robert.

Damien Broderick