From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Fri Aug 16 2002 - 08:18:07 MDT
alex@ramonsky.com wrote:
> So what you are really objecting to is being used as a guinea-pig
without your consent...and this is a very nasty thing for anybody to do
to anybody, I agree. I'd shoot 'em. (JOKE! : ) )
Perhaps the more social and personal nature of this list makes such
experimentation more obvious when it happens, but in my view, all life is
an experiment and all argument can be considered experimenting to see what
reactions one can get out of others.
Even on this highly intellectual list it's clear to me that some people
have very visible, easy-to-use buttons on them that will elicit highly
predictable, almost automatic responses when pressed. So I don't apologize or
think it's bad if I start 'experimenting' on folks by pushing such buttons
in various combinations and sequences. My belief is that such sequencing
can, either spontaneously or over time, lead to attitudinal changes in the
'subjects'. Since, like perhaps many on this list, I am trying (in my own
small way) to build a better tomorrow, I don't feel guilt if such experiments
remain true to my model of what a 'better tomorrow' would entail.
I have found such button-pressing to be especially useful on this list since
(imho) there is little *acknowledged* interest (from the group as a whole) on
introspection and (to an extent) on developing new models of cognition. One
can argue this, and I would welcome such debate.
If I can be permitted to relate this to my own current interests as noted
in the 'American Education' threads, I will note that anyone who learned to
read by using the 'whole word' approach (as opposed to a phonetic approach)
was being experimented upon in their early school years. Per Gatto, such
an approach was based on faulty data which arose from some sort of weird
machinery, with results that weren't peer tested till decades later, when it
was shown that the initial conclusions were simply wrong.
If any of you have kids going to public school, I think there's a good
chance that your kids are being experimented upon daily, with all sorts of
wacko experiments derived from equally wacko theories tinged with 'political
correctness' and memes such as 'no child left behind' and 'nationwide testing
standards'. Such experimentation is made easier by the prison-like environment
and compulsory attendance laws accompaning american education. Given that
a human's general attitudes and approach toward life are generally set in
childhood, I might worry far more about the local elementary school than
experimenters on this list.
Thanks, -Mike
---- This message was posted by Michael Wiik to the Extropians 2002 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=52772>
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