About discussing Social Impact etc. [WAS Re: KILL-subTHREAD: Joshua Fox]

From: Richard Loosemore (rpwl@lightlink.com)
Date: Tue Feb 07 2006 - 12:54:23 MST


Eliezer,

Your thread-kill accepted, of course.

But, have you or the others considered before the practicalities of HOW
to have some discussion about the likely pre-Singularity impact of the
Singularity *idea*, and the likely threats from the way the world is
going, without the discussion turning political?

I say this because I am very interested in the way that things will play
out, and with ways to approach the threats the world faces between now
and then, but in the past I have watched these discussions go by without
volunteering any thoughts, for the simple reason that they do seem to go
straight from sanity to politically charged insanity?

For example, one issue of great importance is the way that the
Nanotechnology idea started out with similar transformative vision, but
has since become co-opted by corporate interests in such a way as to
neuter some of the real nanotech goals? Here we have something very
important, but it is by its nature very political.

Would it be a matter of allowing debate, but requiring all to take pains
to avoid any inflammatory remarks (in other words, temporarily suspend
Crocker's Rules)?

Or is it simply impossible to talk about this at all?

I suspect the latter.

Richard Loosemore.

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> Russell Wallace wrote:
>> On 2/7/06, *Richard Loosemore* <rpwl@lightlink.com
>> <mailto:rpwl@lightlink.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Who said the snipers would ONLY object to neoconservative
>> politics? I
>> was pointing out that they will not allow *any* partisan
>> discussion of
>> politics, and what you produced resembled a right-wing rant.
>>
>> And what I'm pointing out is that I mentioned no political party, nor
>> any present-day political organization other than the European Union,
>> nor did I otherwise engage in any form of partisan politics. (As it
>> happens I'm a libertarian, but this isn't about promoting the
>> libertarian agenda.)
>
> The original post might have slipped by the List Snipers, if no one had
> taken the bait. This exchange, though, is political conversation
> indeed, and is generating lots of messages that don't move the actual
> SL4 discussion forward.
>
> Kill-subthread.
>
> We now return you to hard takeoff.
>



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