[ExI] EP

[Spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of hkhenson
...
> 
> You should approach the subject "override or reprogram" with *great*
> caution.  Perhaps some of these long evolved psychological mechanisms
> are useless in the present world, but then again you can't be sure
> ... what the future holds. Keith Henson

Ja, so true.  Just because we have a reptilian fear of something does not
mean that the something is not dangerous.

Imagine this scenario as a Monte Python routine.  Man listening to crystal
set, President Roosevelt declares, "The only thing we have to feah is feah
itself!"

The man nods in agreement, switches off the radio, returns complacently to
his newspaper.  An ad suggests he "Fear This" and soon he gets nervous,
which leads to butterflies in the stomach, then a gnawing discomfort, which
soon results in palpable anxiety, sweating, jitters, which causes him to
startle, which causes him to cry out in nameless fear, which causes more
fear in a runaway positive feedback loop, which leads to stark terror, then
mindless panic, followed by a massive coronary.

If we have nothing to fear but fear itself, this does not mean that fear
itself is not to be feared.

spike