Re: Merely Human? was Re: ethnocentrism and extropianism?

From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Mon Jun 03 2002 - 07:45:32 MDT


All of us tend to 'look down our noses' at things we find disgusting. If
people exhibit traits we feel disgust at, then we'll look down our noses
at them, regardless of what group or subset they are in. This works for
teenagers and dogs too.

[previous message]
Lee Corbin wrote:

>Michael writes
>
>>Out of curiosity, what do you think of those who ascribe to other groups a
>>ratio of, say, (30% devil, 20% child, 50% "our kind of 'real' person"),
>>whatever that might mean? ...Does that make all of those people incredibly
>>arrogant? Or imperialist? Or merely human?
>>
>
>This question may suffer from the ambiguity of "other groups"
>the way that Wei Dai's and Hal's discussion of rational Bayesian
>agents does. What about when the variable "other groups" takes
>on values like "teenagers" or "dogs"? I guess that you mean
>humans not in jail or mental institutions or drunk, and who are
>also above some particular age.
>
>I think that it means both arrogant and imperialist, to some degree.
>Those of us in the "in group", whether it be Extropians, fighters
>for racial equality, parents, corporate developers, or humans often
>look down our noses at those we think of as unenlightened, or stupid,
>or immature, or violent, non-sentient. Sometimes I approve of us
>doing that, sometimes I don't.
>
>Lee
>
>



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