Good stuff, Max, but a few parts strike me odd.<br><br>In part 1 you say, "Most of us want to do two things at the same time: Protect our<br>freedom to innovate technologically, and protect ourselves and our environment from<br>
excessive collateral damage."  Problem is, many of the people to whom this piece is<br>or should be addressed, don't really want to innovate technologically.  If they are<br>consciously aware of it being a good thing at all, they place it far less in priority than<br>
protection - to the point that they say they're willing to do away with innovation entirely.<br>("If it would lessen damage to the environment" is one of the justifications given, but not<br>the only one.  Not having to deal with technology's dislocation, and wanting to be<br>
familiar with the world their children are growing up to inherit, are among the others..)<br>Replacing "Protect our freedom to innovate technologically" with something like "Find<br>ways to fix the problems - ours and the world's - that we care about" might be better<br>
<br>In part 2, you're going on extensively about the breadth the precautionary principle has<br>spread.  Again, consider your audience: people who may view this as well and good,<br>and take your words to simply reinforce their position.  I think you would be better<br>
served to either shorten the demonstration, or to point out the harm that each example<br>you bring up does, as you touched on with the FDA example.  At the very least, point<br>out examples where the application of the precautionary principle added costs that<br>
proved to be completely unnecessary, and which a more balanced regulatory regime<br>would have identified as such in advance.<br><br>In part 3, the small (2,000-4,000) number of increased highway deaths attributable to<br>
the Kyoto protocol can be easily assumed as outweighed by the reduced number of<br>deaths to complications brought on by polluted air.  You may wish to drop that<br>example.<br><br>-Adrian<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 7:02 PM, Max More <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:max@maxmore.com">max@maxmore.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<a href="http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<br>
The sections so far:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution.html" target="_blank">http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution.html</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-2-pervasive.html" target="_blank">http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-2-pervasive.html</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-3-paradox-of.html" target="_blank">http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/08/perils-of-precaution-part-3-paradox-of.html</a><br>
<br>
Last two sections to follow on Monday.<br>
<br>
Comments welcome.<br>
<br>
Max<br>
<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------<br>
Max More, Ph.D.<br>
Strategic Philosopher<br>
Co-editor, The Transhumanist Reader<br>
The Proactionary Project<br>
Extropy Institute Founder<br>
<a href="http://www.maxmore.com" target="_blank">www.maxmore.com</a><br>
<a href="mailto:max@maxmore.com" target="_blank">max@maxmore.com</a><br>
------------------------------------- <br>
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