[ExI] The Parallel Man

[Ben Zaiboc]

Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> grumbled:

> > > Don't spend too much time on this. It's not going
> to work.
> > 
> > Well, it's my time to spend.  I want to at least
> understand /why/ it's not going to work, if it's not. 
> And maybe thereby get an idea of what might work.
> 
> Ask your actuarial table when you're going to die, then
> think
> whether above will help you. I'm fairly sure it won't.


Ouch.

I'm a lateral thinker, dammit!  

Actuarial tables are averaged over a population of people who seldom think about much more than what's on telly, how delicious does that doughnut look and who can they shag without the missus/old man finding out.  
I spit on them. (Actuarial tables, I mean, not the people).

Besides, if thinking about neural interfaces doesn't help me, but does help other people, does that not make it worthwhile?

I actually think it's /important/ to muse about things that, if they did work, would make a huge (huge?  I mean ENORMOUS) difference to things.  Even if the likelihood of them actually working is pretty tiny.  One of those ideas will work, one day, and that will be worth all the failed ideas that precede it.

Please, don't discourage people from thinking outside the box.  It's an important activity, even if the thinkers themselves may not benefit from it (and even it they are hopelessly naive, and have crap ideas).  What we need is /constructive/ criticism, not "don't bother".  

Tell me to get an education (working on that, actually), tell me to do my maths again, tell me to talk to an expert, but don't tell me not to bother.


Ben Zaiboc
(sorry if that turned into a bit of a rant! I do feel strongly about it)