From: Jef Allbright (jef@jefallbright.net)
Date: Mon Oct 15 2007 - 09:23:13 MDT
On 10/15/07, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 15/10/2007, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > http://www.intelligence.org/blog/2007/10/14/the-meaning-that-immortality-gives-to-life/
>
> Very good essay. Bizarre that one should need to spend rhetorical
> effort to make the point that BEING HIT ON THE HEAD WITH A BASEBALL
> BAT IS BAD.
Yes, an excellent essay. Thanks Eliezer!
In response to some of the subsequent comments however:
It's not bizarre at all that people commonly hold such partially
informed and passionately protected beliefs about aging and death,
religious authority, evolution, morality, or the primacy of the
first-person point of view.
Making a mockery of the target worldview, while attractive, is a
prescription for memetic failure in the bigger picture, unless one's
aim is to strengthen the in-group/out-group distinction.
While I agree with the simple statement that "being hit on the head is
bad", those who think it's all that simple and obvious might find it
edifying to consider the essential role of constraints in any process
of growth.
- Jef
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