Re: Ben's "Extropian Creed"

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Nov 13 2000 - 22:21:42 MST


"E. Shaun Russell" wrote:
>
> If I walk down a street in a slum neighborhood, perhaps I'll toss a bum a
> buck or two.

I think that this mental imagery carries certain implicit assumptions. The
people below the poverty line, even in the First World, are not necessarily
there by choice, or even as the result of their own actions. Maybe a majority
are there through their own "fault", maybe a majority is there by
happenstance; in either case, the humans of contention, and of particular
relevance to the current debate, are the ones who are poor due to causes
outside their ability to control. I sincerely doubt that that percentage is
under 10%. I beguess that it represents a majority. That goes quadruple for
the Third World.

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



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