[ExI] Beowulf

[hkhenson]

At 11:03 PM 11/23/2007, spike wrote:
> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins

snip

> > Awful as that is why is it our business to deal with such at all?  Do
> > we believe that homogenous norms should be enforced worldwide by
> > strength of arms were other means fail?  If so then we can look
> > forward to unending war, much terrorism and depleted economic prospects.
> >
> > >
> >
> > - samantha
>
>Ja, I see your concern but of course evil triumphs when good people do you
>know what.
>
>http://www.reuters.com/article/gc05/idUSL2362541420071123
>
>Can we really say we shouldn't be helping the Iraqis beat this plague?  All
>cultures are not fundamentally equivalent.  It is our business because we
>are good people.  Al qaeda is evil.

An EP view of such awful actions has no room for "evil" any more than 
lions keeping down the population of zebras is evil.  Human have no 
predators except other humans. So when a population perceives a bleak 
future, the warriors get hyped up by circulating xenophobic memes to 
kill anyone who is not in their group. In the stone age, killing a 
bunch of neighbors was a sure method to increase the food supply per capita.

The rise of Al Qaeda is as mechanistic as pulling your hand back from 
a hot stove.

The positive point is that EP allows you to figure out what it will 
take to stop such activities. Unfortunately it takes a generation or 
more and it is not obvious that the culture can be changed enough to 
reduce population growth below economic growth. In the short term you 
have to expect an awful lot of people to die.

Unless, of course, you want to try something totally mad. Such as 
swapping out most of the population of Iraq with Texans.

Keith