From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Aug 12 1999 - 10:48:12 MDT
"delriviere christophe" <mich@thehzone.tzo.org> writes:
> >Here in Stockholm we only got a 70% eclipse, but the weather was a
> >beautiful summer day, so I spent the eclipse hour outside with a small
> >telescope, using it to image the sun on a piece of cardboard. Most of
> >the neighbourhood children appeared to watch, and I got the chance to
> >explain a bit of optics and astronomy for them. A small thing, but
> >becoming the trusted neighborhood scientist is a good way of spreading
> >the memes and combatting silliness like Paco Rabanne's predictions.
>
> If I remember well he had made the promise to close his mouth forever if his
> last prediction is wrong ;)
His problem isn't that he is a religious figure, which means his
failed prediction will be held against him (had he been a guru his
credibility would have remained roughly constant :-).
> Still, I found "interesting" that the guy was efficiently managing to spread
> his stupidity outside the french side of the world.. Is it possible for him
> to have so much influence in Sweden?
No, none other than somebody mentioning him in one of those "craziness
around the world" notices somewhere in a newspaper. I'm taking the
proactive stance - immunize the children first to bad memes and tell
them about critical thinking, rather than trying to stamp out already
present idiocy.
> I will repeat myself 16 times today that the world is far more
> interconnected than I was thinking previously ;)...
My US trip also brought it home to me clearly - suddenly I felt that
being abroad wasn't that much different from being at home (except for
small changes in culture etc). Very strange feeling, and rather nice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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