<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>I am being asked as a psychologist why people believe strange things, often things that would help themselves and others, but they are opposed and get really sanctimonious about it.<br><br></div>
I remarked to my son once (he is as impatient as I am with fools) that he must remember that half the population is below average by definition. He replied that it was remarkable to him that half were ABOVE average. He had it right.<br>
<br></div>My magnet school seniors all scored zero on a simple logic test I gave them. Logic has to be learned and schools don't teach it. Given that and the 100+ cognitive errors some crazy evolution has given us, it is remarkable that anything ever gets done properly. General semanticists have estimated that in any given conversation only about 25% of what is intended to be communicated is. <br>
<br></div><div>(I'd like to see some data on apes and whether they suffer from cognitive errors too.)<br><br></div>Whoever said that without the top 1% of the population no progress of any kind would be made, hit it on the nose. That's why I want in my book to narrow the population down to those folks. No fools to suffer (pun intended). bill w<br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 10:26 PM, spike <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></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""> <a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace<br>
<b><span style="color:#1f497d">…</span></b></span><u></u><u></u></p><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="color:#1f497d">>…</span>As an aside: I have written help and gotten an incomprehensible return that looks like some sort of programming commands and does not address my questions: how do I find out the topics people on the list are interested in? When I click on reply does my email go only to my correspondent? Or to everyone? If you could just take a minute to explain this site to me it would be a big help<span style="color:#1f497d">. </span>Thanks!<span style="color:#1f497d"> </span>Bill Wallace<span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Hi Bill,<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">I assume someone has posted you offlist by now. I was away camping since Friday morning. This is what we are about:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><a href="http://www.buildfreedom.com/extropian_principles.html" target="_blank">http://www.buildfreedom.com/extropian_principles.html</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">The reading list needs updated, but the principles are as good as new.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Your question might be a good reminder for several on the list who are recent. List protocols are that if you hit reply to anything, it goes to all subscribers. We are a transhumanist group, but as you can see we are very open minded about what constitutes on-topic discussions. There are more focused transhumanist groups such as Eugen’s transhumanist tech, where he is super strict about staying right on topic, but ExI-chat is comfortable pitching a broad tent. One line replies are allowed, goofing and comedy are allowed. Good thing: they would have thrown me into the bit bucket 15 yrs ago otherwise.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">When you reply, trim out everything except the relevant comment, then post below it. Try to keep it to no more than 5 posts a day, or if you go over, make sure it is something really timely or extremely interesting to everyone. I won’t do anything much about overposting until someone starts to complain or I get bored with whatever it is you are over-yakking about.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Be nice, be fun, you are among friends here.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Post away, me lad!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Your friendly omnipotent ExI moderator,<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><u></u><u></u></font></span></span></p>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">spike<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<br></blockquote></div><br></div>