[ExI] Electoral College

[David Lubkin]

William Flynn Wallace wrote:

>Finally I said "What you are doing is playing 
>the What If game.  Yes, all sorts of things 
>might happen, and what it they did?  Well it 
>would be bad, yes.  But you can imagine many 
>things that could go wrong, and you might go 
>there anxious that they will happen and the 
>consequences if they do.  And it's endless.  Completely endless."

Pulling back to core extropian topics, we know 
from many studies, going back decades, that the 
general public—or humans per se, if you like—has 
a very poor sense of risk. They routinely both 
overestimate and underestimate risks by several 
orders of magnitude. The hallmarks of this group 
should be rationality, numeracy, and rigor. It 
should be a place where we think things through 
together, for our own sakes' and to be prepared 
when we hear The Van Allen Belt is falling! The Van Allen Belt is falling!

Also, as a tactic for emotional management of 
fear and worry from perceived risk, assume the 
worst came true. If you can convince yourself 
you'd be fine even if, everything else is better than that.

I use that approach as one way to gauge political 
fear-mongering. If X is elected, Y will happen! 
In my experience, even if I don't want Y (and I 
often do), the prospect of Y is usually 
shrug-worthy. I try it on for size mentally. And 
if there's somewhere where Y is in place, I can 
look at it and meh, not what I'd pick, but I can live with it.


-- David.