From: Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Date: Thu Jan 16 1997 - 12:19:00 MST
Eric Watt Forste:
>Lee Daniel Crocker asserts that "You shouldn't offend people" and
>"People can be hurt by words" are dangerous memes. This position seems
>self-contradictory to me. Are not these two ideas mere ideas, mere
>strings of words? If they are false, as Mr. Crocker seems to think they
>are, then people cannot be hurt by words or ideas.
I have come to think that transhumanists, once and for all, need to
decide the role of words and language in future scenarios. If we are
planning to operate in symbolic environments like the internet,
uploading, and other computer applications, then words themselves are
going to become our physical representations. It therefore becomes
specious to debate terminology and definitions on the one hand,
thereby acknowledging the impact of words as symbolic
representations, and to simultaneously dismiss the potential of
language to inflict pain on an individual.
Sin,
Kathryn Aegis
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