From: James Higgins (jameshiggins@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Jun 25 2001 - 16:52:42 MDT
Actually I would much rather have a well designed, open society than what
we have now. Assuming our current society could be completely reworked to
remove the negative elements I wouldn't mind at all having information
about me be available. Heck, their already is considerable information
about me out there, but in sub-societies (such as this one).
However, unless we obtain the ability to transcend or end up with a sysop
that changes all the rules anything similar to the below idea would have
many more negatives than positives to belonging.
And actually I would still mind being "hunted as a witch" even if I
couldn't be burned at the stake. A society that would have such things
would also be poorly designed. In a truly well designed society no one
would persecute others for their beliefs, no matter how much they deviated
from theirs. At least as long as those beliefs did not intrude on
them. Someone with a belief such as "all life on earth should be
exterminated" (and who planned to work toward this goal) would still be
problematic.
James Higgins
At 03:59 PM 6/25/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>James Higgins wrote:
> >
> > Oh, I'm certain Big Brother would love this. A database of which beliefs
> > people agree and disagree with. Let the witch hunts begin!
>
>I don't mind being hunted as a witch, as long as nobody possesses the
>capability to burn me at the stake. I'm with Lee Daniel Crocker on this
>one - a need for privacy is a symptom of a badly designed society.
>
>Information, once disseminated, can never be recalled. Therefore, to try
>and keep information private is the fragile strategy; to design a society
>which can withstand the information being open is the nonfragile
>strategy. (At Extro 5, LDC pointed out that the problem is not that a
>cracker can obtain your social security number; the problem is that our
>banking structure allows you to easily obtain a credit card in my name if
>you have my social security number. He offered as an analogy a system
>where ATMs allowed you to obtain cash using only the ATM card number,
>rather than requiring the physical card plus a PIN.)
>
>Ironically enough, LDC also wanted to send his kids to a fully monitored
>school, something that sounded to me like a reasonably good approximation
>of hell - although LDC did agree with me when I pointed out that the power
>parents have over children needs to be substantially reduced before a
>transparent school is a good idea.
>
>-- -- -- -- --
>Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
>Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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