[extropy-chat] Causes of luddism

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Bill Hibbard wrote:

> --- Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> 
>> --- Bill Hibbard <test at demedici.ssec.wisc.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> Very good point. But rather than hypothetical quotes, how about the
>>> real thing:
>>> 
>>> http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/g/message9.txt
>>> 
>>> and:
>>> 
>>> http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/g/message10.txt
>> 
>> Umm...you missed my point.  It's not that we should necessarily
>> believe in them to make wise decisions right now.  It's that they
>> believe in themselves to make wise decisions when the time comes -
>> and if they believe we are aiming to impose our will upon them, to 
>> deny them any say in the matter in the future, that is what often
>> causes them to act against us in the present.
> 
> But that is what these quotes are saying, that the public and their
> elected representatives are too stupid to have any say in the matter.

I notice you've done some hella selective quoting there.

For the uncensored version, see:

http://www.sl4.org/archive/0305/6822.html

Sample omission:  "There's a reason why science tests theories using 
experiments instead of having panels of government experts vote on them, 
and it's not because government experts are stupid."

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence