From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 2002 - 09:37:12 MST
John K Clark wrote:
> "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com>
>
> >the level of that feeling of emptinness and hype has not
> >improved significantly. Take a look at anti-depressant
> >prescription volume if you don't think so. Better yet,
> >tell me how this culture feeds that which is most
> >important to you and fuels you.
>
> What era would you have rather be living in, the sixties? That was in the
> middle of a long costly pointless war that was ultimately lost; and it
> didn't matter if you thought the war was a good idea or not because the
> draft existed and you'd still be forced to fight and die 12 thousand miles
> from home; the didn't have the Internet either. The fifties? Racism was
> considered perfectly respectable by most; the H bomb had just been invented
> and politicians still didn't have a deep understanding about how powerful
> they really were so the dagger of thermonuclear war was very high. The
> forties? Half the world was trying to kill the other half. The thirties?
> Great economic depressions are not my cup of tea. I wouldn't trade with any
> time in the past; as for anti-depressant prescription, people take more of
> them because they work better now.
I'd rather be living in 1992 than 2002. I'd gain an extra ten years of
time on my deadline. (Just because you don't *know* when your deadline
is, doesn't mean it's not a deadline.)
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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