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At 06:28 PM 12/28/2005, you wrote:<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On 12/29/05,
<a href="mailto:nvitamore@austin.rr.com"><b>nvitamore@austin.rr.com</a>
</b>
<<a href="mailto:nvitamore@austin.rr.com">nvitamore@austin.rr.com</a>
> wrote:<br>
<dl><br>
<dd>From: Harvey Newstrom<br><br>
<dd>> As my original note pointed out, all "solutions" fail
some <br>
<dd>>segment of the community. There seems to be no answer that
everyone<br>
<dd>>finds acceptable. No matter which we chose, some segment of
the<br>
<dd>>audience will leave. I have no idea what the answer is,
because<br>
<dd>>different people have different criteria for the list.<br><br>
<dd>My ideal discussion would be to approach an issue/problem from<br>
<dd>multidisciplinary, and domain-diversity, viewpoints. Rather
than beating<br>
<dd>the donkey or elephant silly, it would be more extropic to take an
issue <br>
<dd>such as getting vaccines to developing countries or proactively
fighting<br>
<dd>for individual (human) rights and work at finding a solution.
For example,<br>
<dd>if a topic is "POL-STEE: Vaccines & Dev. Countries,"
posters would apply <br>
<dd>domain-diversity in their suggested solutions by looking at the issue
from<br>
<dd>social, technological, economic and environmental
perspectives.<br><br>
<dd>Rather than pushing party politics, posters would push the domain
"ideas" <br>
<dd>to solve the problem. In the end, this would mean that the
solution<br>
<dd>finding would be non-partisan and focused on solutions rather than
personal<br>
<dd>politics.<br><br>
</dl><br>
That works for well defined technical problems.<br>
It does not work if some dispute that there is a problem, or for social
problems that involve cultural clashes.<br>
How would you use your technique to resolve the abortion debate in the
US?</blockquote><br>
This method has to work for social problems or it is no good. I
think all social problems involve cultural clashes, don't they? And
usually these clashes can be reduced to religious or political views in
which individual rights (freedom of choice) are not respected.
<br><br>
With your choice of abortion debate, the conflict stems from disparate
views on when live begins and the mother's life being of more value than
the life of the newly formed cells in the uterus. There are a few
views, but the central ones are the beliefs that (1) life begins with the
union of egg and sperm; and (2) life begins when the conglomeration of
cells differentiate and form cognitive function and memories (creating
identity). I'm afraid there is no compromise between these
two, usually. Although there has been some sign of compromise
between the two beliefs about when the cells form - what month do they
create a being, etc.. <br><br>
The real issue is not abortion or the abortion debate, but how to prevent
unwanted pregnancies. Preventing unwanted pregnancies needs to be looked
at from a technological, economic and environmental perspective.<br><br>
More later.<br><br>
Natasha<br><br><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font size=2><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Natasha
</a><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Vita-More</a>
<dd>Cultural Strategist - Designer
<dd>Future Studies, University of Houston
<dd>President, <a href="http://www.extropy.org/">Extropy Institute</a>
<dd>Member, <a href="http://www.profuturists.com/">Association of
Professional Futurists</a>
<dd>Founder, <a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/">Transhumanist Arts
& Culture</a>
<dd>Honorary Vice-Chair, <a href="http://transhumanism.org/">World
Transhumanist Association</a>
<dd>Senior Associate, <a href="http://foresight.org/">Foresight
Institute</a>
<dd>Advisor, <a href="http://alcor.org/">Alcor Life Extension
Foundation</a><br><br>
</font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><i>If you draw a circle in the
sand and study only what's inside the circle, then that is a
closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the circle and
everything outside the circle, then that is an open system perspective.
</i>
<dd>Buckminster Fuller<br>
<br><br></font>
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