From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Mar 02 2001 - 09:52:23 MST
Charlie Stross wrote:
>
> What I'm getting at is the need for a general discussion, not just one
> held between rival camps of zealots.
This *is* a general discussion. If you think it's inadequate, contribute
to Foresight's "social software" efforts.
> And yes, we _are_ zealots. (Clue: I consider myself to be on _your_ side.)
> None is so blind to their ideology as the one who, un-noticing, swims in
> it every day ...
If you're a religious or political fanatic, sure. Being a fanatic about
self-awareness is a different matter. I used to be very fanatic about how
awful it is to be blinded by ideology, but that was four years ago.
There's only a finite number of ways that zealotry can mess up the unwary
mind.
There comes a point where, however transhumanistically incorrect it may
be, you have to face the fact that you've gone so far beyond the critics
that you have a better chance of spotting flaws in your ideology than they
do.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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