Re: Confession of wrongness was (Re: Radioactive decay ...)

Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Sat, 23 Oct 1999 06:39:20 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 22 Oct 1999, Jeff Davis wrote:

> Yes, I admit it. I was wrong. I hearby confess to my wrongness. You were
> right. And I was wrong. In wrongness, I was the responsible party.
[snip]
>
> Oh, the ignominy!

Well Jeff, to recover our good graces, how would you like to lead a discussion at Extro5 on alternative extropic ways to demonstrate one is aware of ones wrongfullness and can see through the noise and emotion so we can just get on to the next thing?

I think there is a lot of mental "charge" wrapped up in being right and wrong. This probably arises because in some situations there are important consequences for survival (No, No, you stupid idiot you never approach the Saber-tooth Tiger from the upwind side...). However in most of our day-to-day lives, being right (or wrong) has less serious consequences (particularly in the realms of pure discussion).

The emotion involved in some of the discussions on this list would seem to indicate that some people view being wrong as the rough equivalent to being sentenced to death by stake-impalement. The reality is that most of us are likely to die by *much* less painful causes (if at all). So we could in general "lighten up" about things. It might be much better if we explored the realms of our inquiries with the perspective of Zen masters rather than that of primitive mercenaries.

Robert