[extropy-chat] POLITICS: terrorism and strategies

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Acy James Stapp wrote:

> If, given certain knowledge that Hitler (or some other abominable
> historical figure) was going to commit massive genocide, you were
> able to go back in time and assasinate him before he could
> cause any damage [1], would you? Assume that you personally
> would be caught, tried, and executed. Would you pull the trigger?

If I had reasonable certainty that the alternative future
paths would be unlikely to be worse than the current probable
future path then the answer would of course be yes.

I value a good chance at an increased extropic future higher
than I value my own life.  (This is where Daimen's comments
about the pills may come into play...).  I hope however that my
priorities are dictated by rational thought based on sound
scientific evidence and will lead to an improved quality of
life here on Earth -- not in some fantasy based hereafter
the existence of which cannot be proven.  [This is at least
in part what would distinguish myself from the current crop
of Islamic terrorists...]

In the cases of Hitler, Saddam, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.
I would certainly have intervened (if I had sufficent
knowledge of what was taking place) long before the
numbers got into the tens of thousands to millions
range.  It would be unextropic to tolerate such
a massive extinction of human life as they were
responsible for (IMO).

And as a side note... Google turned up [1] which suggests
that the Rwanda problem had its roots in German and/or Belgium
political or governance policies...

Robert

1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/cron.html