From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 02:20:41 MST
On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 11:09:03PM -0500, Vanessa Novaeris wrote a
really good post:
> I found out that, unfortunately, many people are uninformed about this
> issue. But I thought it was interesting how everyone's (false) perceptions
> tend to be warped in the same way - like they all grumble the same
> complaints & share the same attitudes about what they consider to be
> population "problems."
Yes, this is going on all the time around us. It is usually easier to
see when it is a position you disagree with, but it is equally true for
many positions oneself take for granted. This is why there are such
problems changing the positions of certain people about some things -
they are trapped in self-reinforcing perspectives. But as you show, it
is possible to get out of them too.
> I did have a point, so let me just stop my head from spinning - I guess its
> just this: People commonly form opinions on issues about which they know
> nothing (or very little). But I think that with an open & eager mind
> (along with a credible source of information & some encouragement), even
> the most uneducated individuals can attain substantial understanding of the
> general issue at hand as well as the various perspectives from which it can
> be evaluated. With time & effort, I think such people can, at the very
> least, come to value the importance of being informed. I mean, if even *I*
> can do it?perhaps there might be hope(?)
Very good advice to all of us.
Maybe we should have a "question the obvious week" from time to time,
when we take something we tend to take for granted and examine it
closely for a week, seeing if it really is so or if we have just been
trapped into a biased perspective.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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