[ExI] Parts 1 to 3 of The Perils of Precaution now online

[Adrian Tymes]

Good stuff, Max, but a few parts strike me odd.

In part 1 you say, "Most of us want to do two things at the same time:
Protect our
freedom to innovate technologically, and protect ourselves and our
environment from
excessive collateral damage."  Problem is, many of the people to whom this
piece is
or should be addressed, don't really want to innovate technologically.  If
they are
consciously aware of it being a good thing at all, they place it far less in
priority than
protection - to the point that they say they're willing to do away with
innovation entirely.
("If it would lessen damage to the environment" is one of the justifications
given, but not
the only one.  Not having to deal with technology's dislocation, and wanting
to be
familiar with the world their children are growing up to inherit, are among
the others..)
Replacing "Protect our freedom to innovate technologically" with something
like "Find
ways to fix the problems - ours and the world's - that we care about" might
be better

In part 2, you're going on extensively about the breadth the precautionary
principle has
spread.  Again, consider your audience: people who may view this as well and
good,
and take your words to simply reinforce their position.  I think you would
be better
served to either shorten the demonstration, or to point out the harm that
each example
you bring up does, as you touched on with the FDA example.  At the very
least, point
out examples where the application of the precautionary principle added
costs that
proved to be completely unnecessary, and which a more balanced regulatory
regime
would have identified as such in advance.

In part 3, the small (2,000-4,000) number of increased highway deaths
attributable to
the Kyoto protocol can be easily assumed as outweighed by the reduced number
of
deaths to complications brought on by polluted air.  You may wish to drop
that
example.

-Adrian

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 7:02 PM, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:

> http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/
>
> The sections so far:
>
> http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution.html
>
>
> http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-2-pervasive.html
>
>
> http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-3-paradox-of.html
>
> Last two sections to follow on Monday.
>
> Comments welcome.
>
> Max
>
>
> -------------------------------------
> Max More, Ph.D.
> Strategic Philosopher
> Co-editor, The Transhumanist Reader
> The Proactionary Project
> Extropy Institute Founder
> www.maxmore.com
> max at maxmore.com
> -------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
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> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
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>
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