From: Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Date: Mon Jan 15 2001 - 15:43:32 MST
Charlie Stross wrote:
> Let me add to this: the unbounded techno-optimism is out of step with
Unbounded? Where?
> popular culture, and sometimes veers dangerously close to a Panglossian
> refusal to face the possibility that there is a downside to all this
> stuff. I'm not advocating luddism here: it's just that any new technology
I guess we all should find our fulfillment in petty agriculture, then.
Sorry, count me out.
> tends to come with misapplications as well as advantages, and sometimes
> the vehement insistence that _of course_ the benefits outweigh the costs
> appears facile and stupid. Especially when talking about technologies
> (example: molecular nanotechnology) where the benefits are major, but
> the worst possible case down-side is catastrophic (i.e. total extinction).
You will notice that there is no consensus on the issue.
> Pure unadulterated optimism, to put it bluntly, is unrealistic -- and
> everybody knows it.
So is pure pessimism. Gosh, we have to find a middle course. Who would
have thought?
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