<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Kelly Anderson<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] yet another ethical dilemma<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 3:57 PM, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:11.55pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>That one’s easy Kelly: No. If they aint askin’ I aint tellin</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>… spike</span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Aww, but Spike... He forced himself on her... What about that old ethic of an eye for an eye? Don't they deserve it... ;-)<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>-Kelly<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Who is they, Kelly? My fourth cousin didn’t do anything wrong. Neither did I. Rather I haven’t yet. But it feels like anything I do here is at least partly wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I have a thought experiment for you Kelly and others who are reading this thread. This exercise has a point. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Take a list of characteristics you consider important to being a good person in your view, put them in order of importance if you wish, any number of characteristics, and personalize them, your top values rather than what you have been taught are the right values. What makes a good successful person in your view? Perhaps you chose honesty, fairness, intelligence, diligence, kindness, generosity. You can likely envision a person who you know who is all that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>OK now, estimate your position on that scale as a percentile as compared to every person in the world. My guess is that you estimated your position in the top half of every one of those scales. Repeat for all people in your nation. Speculate you still did well in all categories, and if you repeat for everyone in your neighborhood, you likely still did well. In all three cases, if you averaged your percentile in all those categories, you likely scored in the 70s or perhaps even the 80s.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>OK now, repeat the above experiment will a group composed of all your direct ancestors. Hmmmm, my ancestors. Imagine them gathered in a fantasy or thought experiment where all of your ancestors are the age you are now, gathered in one spot. That would be a hell of a party, would it not? If you imagined the above thought experiment compared against this crowd, your own genetic donors, are you more honest, smarter, fairer, more diligent, etc than they? If you are like me, you probably put yourself about average on many if not most of those scales, and possibly below average, so if you average your scores on all your scales compared to your own ancestors, you might be only around 50<sup>th</sup> percentile average. Anyone else get that result?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Look at that a different way. That thought experiment, if it turned out the same as it did for me, is equivalent to saying your own ancestors were better than average people. We tend to think highly of our own ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If so, is it not upsetting to learn that one of our own was an evil bastard?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>