From: Chen Yixiong, Eric (cyixiong@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Sep 19 2001 - 01:01:59 MDT
Originally = [Extropians] RE: The endgame is near -- my comments
> If I die, it will be of precious little comfort to me that everyone else
> died first.
Well said. I hereby back your ideas (even though I share some blame by forwarding articles here).
I also wish to state (at the risk of great offense) that in a global context, the deaths of these thousand or so people only consists of a small number. You may personally know some of them and you may thus feel emotional as a result.
How about those suffering under oppressive governments, such as in China? How about those suffering from famine, warfare, disease, loss of parents in Africa? How about those caught up in poverty, those who must provide sexual services and risk getting diseases, or slave in a dirty, dangerous factory to feed their family?
We speak of the deaths and suffering of a thousand as if this represents the that of a billion. We speak of the dignity of a nation as if it represents the world. We claim to support freedom and liberty while the ever helpful CIA once supported the people whom we now call the enemies to "civilisation" and perhaps with this support made this event possible.
Does it mean that those whom we did not know somehow matter to us lesser? Does it mean that those who do not live in America somehow seem less important? Does it mean that we should not look at our own faults? Perhaps we can remember the words uttered by Jesus in the Bible: "Let those who had not sinned, throw the first stone".
We, if we wish to succeed, must engage in something fruitful and tangible. We should not let just a few mere terrorists cause group disunity. We must prepare for the unexpected, and most of all, I hope all of you will show some tangible action. Perhaps we can creating useful theories, conducting useful research into AI, and very importantly for our future survival, look into the creation of colonies.
I hope this posting helps. I will ignore flame mail, though I feel confident that this group of people who cliam themselves "Extropians" will have enough mental maturity to objectively analyse the situation than to let their emotions take control of them.
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:10:49 MST