From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Sat May 25 2002 - 11:38:22 MDT
Very good points. See Nozick's Philosophical Explanations for more.
Rafal
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert J. Bradbury [mailto:bradbury@aeiveos.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 6:08 AM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Cc: max@maxmore.com
Subject: Re: Use of the Extropian Principles
Commenting on some of the Harvey Lee Max points (I wonder if
there is an EverQuest character with that name...).
As I recall around a month ago, I had a debate with someone
on
the list where we both started hurling principles at each
other.
I think I may have started it (I'll have to remember in the
future to charge admission to the cat fights).
The impression I'm left with was that it got into a
rock-paper-scissors
situation with the different principles having different
merits
vis-a-vis each other. That certainly in my mind makes for a
rather dynamic philosophy. It also suggests that the
relative
merits of the principles may be very context sensitive.
I can think of environments, such as the "future" portrayed
in the
Terminator movies where "practical optimism", "open society"
and
"self-direction" might be the trump cards. An alternate
future
where the luddites held the upper hand might place an
emphasis
on "intelligent technology" and "rational thinking". A
police
state designed to direct all thoughts towards the "party
line"
might want to play "perpetual progress",
"self-transformantion"
and "self-direction".
It could be that we argue the relative importance of various
principles given our personal biases for the futures we most
desire and are most afraid of. Unfortunately we don't have
a
body of "case law" to guide us with respect to individual
discussions. And we also don't have a variety of contexts
in
which interpretations of the principles can be viewed with
respect
to their consequences. I suspect the "misunderstandings"
may
be related to the time frame (and assumed environments) in
which one is subjectively applying the principles.
Robert
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