[ExI] Just a simple question

[Mike Dougherty]

On Sun, Dec 17, 2023, 11:52 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> To be fair: fusion has been accomplished (just not commercially viable
> yet), there are ways to mitigate cancer in at least some cases, and ants
> are kept out of many kitchens.
>

"To be fair"

So the fusion that has been accomplished makes which person the expert? The
one who planned the device? The one who machined it to five-nines
precision? The project manager who coordinated everyone else? Surely the
one signing the check is the expert.  Oh, I'm being facetious.  Of course I
am.

Maybe our definition of "expert" differ between "someone who has done a
thing" and "someone who knows how a thing is done."  Was Neil Armstrong the
only expert to walk on the moon before Aldrin also did the thing?  I am of
a mind to grant many other NASA folk the title of 'expert' on lunar landing
despite the fact they have never done so.  There must be a few people who
were on duty at mission control for more than one lunar landing project
implementation - would that make them double-expert compared to Armstrong
or Aldrin?  I know, the geniuses on this list will tell me how wrong I am
because the type (you know there's a type) are so smart they don't need to
listen.  I profess to be neither smart nor correct.

 My point was not to claim there are no experts in the endeavor to keep
ants out of the kitchen.  That was an absurd rhetorical device.  It might
have made a reader laugh if he or she were familiar with the pattern of
casual conversation.  I sometimes marvel at the voluminous prose expounded
on this list, but it's rarely in a voice that I prefer to consume.  It may
be the same with what and how I write. Hmm.

Anyway, i guess we can have no experts in mind uploading until someone has
been uploaded and their post-biological identity demands legal protection
of selfhood with respect to autonomy and reasonable safety from the
computing hardware being switched off.  Uploaded mice running robot bodies
through mazes they trained on as mere flesh... not good enough to call the
any of those scientists "expert"

Is there any other field that we might agree has "experts" in a domain of
knowledge despite themselves having not achieved the ultimate example of
their profession/craft/art/etc?

Ex: any pianist who flawlessy performs every note of the Minute Waltz in
under sixty seconds can claim the "expert" title.  The one who knows how to
shave three seconds from their personal best of 1m2s is just a
wannabe/poseur.

PS. I know the Minute Waltz isn't intended to be played in 60 seconds.
Hyperbole is usually meant to amuse. :)

>
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