From: Paul Hughes (planetp@aci.net)
Date: Mon Nov 09 1998 - 14:01:30 MST
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
> There's a noticeable difference between a history professor who believes in
> freedom and a lawyer who believes in pork and reelection, even if neither one
> is a fanatic Libertarian. Don't make the mistake of lumping all politicians
> together if they don't share your views; that destroys the possibility of
> incremental progress.
I have to disagree with your very first assumption about Mr. Gingrich - that he believes
in freedom - at least of the civil kind. His record clearly show that he does not look
kindly on civil liberties; and his ideas, futuristic though they may be, do not represent
progress in any measurable way I consider it. I could be wrong, but I distinctly recall
that Mr Newt was on the side of those opposing any kind of cloning research. On the
other hand, one of the few sane voices calling for rational inquiry into cloning was
Senator Harkin (D-Iowa), who by the way is a vocal fan of Star Trek and science fiction
in general. He believes very strongly in space exploration, the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence, and advanced scientific and technological research.
As to lumping together politicians, I draw the line on anybody who advocates the death
penalty for a victimless crime. I don't care if he is on Extropy Institutes Board of
Directors or a research nanotechnologist.
As to the rest of your post, unique and fascinating as always. :-)
Paul
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