From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Dec 02 2000 - 00:11:58 MST
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Old age, like most other forms of suffering, *does* produce wisdom. This
> itself is a part of the human condition that needs to be fixed. There are
> other ways.
>
> One of the truly beautiful truths about modern times is that technology
> creates more wisdom through education and cultural self-awareness than it
> eliminates by eliminating suffering; compared to past times, we suffer
> less, yet are wiser.
Compared to when? Fifty years ago? A hundred? Two hundred? A
thousand? I am sorry to say that I don't see the general human quotient
of wisdom significantly expanding in that time. Nor do I see that the
wisest of today are more wise than the wisest then. I don't buy that
wisdom is a natural by-product of technology.
- samantha
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