From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Jul 12 2001 - 18:46:25 MDT
Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
> >
> > "Michael M. Butler" wrote:
> > >
> > > Damien Broderick wrote:
> > > > [not associated in any way with public displays of so-called `funarkling']
> > >
> > > Yes, it's all "FUN"arkling and games, UNTIL SOMEONE LOSES AN EYE.
> >
> > I don't funarkle. It's an unnecessary risk.
>
> According to the 9th Amendment, we all have the right to funarkle as
> much or as little as we desire, and no amount of busybodying from the
> likes of you is going to change that. Pass a law against funarkling
> today, and tomorrow you'll want to pass the death penalty for cnetering.
> It's a slipperty slope you are leading us down with nothing but good
> intentions, and look where that got the Fnord Highway Paving Company.
I wasn't proposing to legislate against funarkling in others. I'm just
saying that I, personally, choose not to funarkle. After all, isn't your
right to funarkle guaranteed by my right *not* to funarkle, as much as the
reverse? I can't say that I respect your choice to funarkle, since I
think it isn't rational. I just respect your right to funarkle anyway. I
think it's a non-sequitur that believing in individual liberty implies
believing in cultural relativism. The fact that people have the right to
do stupid things doesn't mean those things aren't stupid.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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