From: Arjen Kamphuis (mountain@knoware.nl)
Date: Tue Sep 16 1997 - 09:07:56 MDT
Eliezer wrote:
>> >I'll handle the ghettos if you handle Cambodia. Deal?
>>
>> Deal. As long as we can exchange knowledge & experience on a weekly basis
>> (I guess I'll have to get me a portable InmarSat phone for mail-transfer)
>> If you happen to develop a nano-bot for defusing mines, let me know.
>
>Why should we need to communicate with each other? The two tasks are
utterly
>different! To solve the crack ghettos I need to rewrite the government,
>redesign the economy, do a neurological on drug addiction, and maybe use
>force-evolved viruses to target cocaine supplies.
Eliezer? Why are you so intent on doing everything on your own? What is it
that you hate in teamwork? Even if you are smarter than 99.9998% of the
global population there will always be things you can learn from others,
like 20th-century history (no offence intended) or seeing suffering without
ceasing to function rationaly. Or milking a cow, give a hand in he birth of
a baby or a million other worthwhile experiences you cannot even imagine at
this point.
Besides that it could be *fun*. Have fun Eliezer, you could have a stroke
in 14 seconds (just like anybody) and then you'll be gone for at least some
time (you an Alcor member?). I'd be a shame if you missed out on the simple
joys of life.
Still with us? Good. Some final thoughts about all the bad words in the
subject lines, after this, I think I'm done.
>If people knew what was going on, if they could see videos of children being
>cut in half by gunfire instead of reading about "ethnic strife", there would
>be enough popular support to send in enough troops to solve the problem.
Images from Yugoslavian concentation camps were shown daily on global TV
for several years before something was done. It's easy to have the opinion
that 'this is a bad thing'. Actually going there and risk getting your head
blown off is something else. We in the west have so much to lose by early
death that we don't go to war very quickly, even if we should.
>Unfortunately, our taboo against genocide, and our taboos against violence,
>prevent newspapers from printing such pictures, and prevent TVs from showing
>such films.
I don't see much US-tv but in Europe you could see people get shot on the 6
'o' clock news, bits flying off and everything. Didn't make much difference
sadly enough.
>So collect all the documentation you can find into a Web site,
>www.genocides.org.
//snip//
>Considering the technological leverage of our times, one wealthy donor would
>probably be enough to finance the entire thing.
You seem unaware that only about 1 or at the most 2 percent of the global
population has acces to the web, most have never touched a phone.
I do not believe it's a matter of being informed, the west lacks guts and
resolve (worst in Europe).
Again: E-mailing your representative is easy, you could even 'vote' for it.
But somebody has to *want* to go there and do the job (I do no think it's
neccesary for me to explain to an American what happens when you send
people to fight a war they do not truly believe needs fighting).
>Just because the newspapers refuse to print it, and the TVs won't show
it, and
>the politicians won't talk about it, is no reason we shouldn't know about
it.
Most people don't want to know it, it makes them feel quilty (this does
show however that there is hope).
>If the modern genocides are as bad as the Holocaust, show! Don't tell!
Modern genocides are, and should, in my view be stopped in the same manner
that the holocaust was stopped: kill the perpetrators. Send a very clear
message to anyone with mass-murdering ambitions: "Its still possible to
commit genocide on this planet, we're working on that. It is however not
possible to survive doing so for any length of time."
Of course this would mean either the US army having a lot of work or
expanding the UN, both options won't find much popularity on this list, I
know.
But untill we have nanotech-for-all and become so wealthy that 'we ain't
gonna study war no more' I see no other solution. Doing nothing I find
unacceptable.
I did go, and I would do it again (I hope). Otherwise my opinion would be
totally immoral. I remain hopefull, with some effort...
Arjen
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Arjen Kamphuis | - But why do you want to climb so high?
mountain@knoware.nl | Surely you see that mother-nature never
| meant for you to go above 20,000 Ft?
| - That's why.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:54 MST