But does there need to be consensus among the experts for a public issue to be raised? Regarding other topics that have been on the public discussion palate for awhile, how often has this been the case? Perhaps with regard to issues such as the dangers of drunken driving, but public discussion on other issues of import proceeded nevertheless, in spite of disagreement among experts and laypeople.
I therefore misjudge the people if they prefer to walk into the future with blinders on, leaving discussions of issues which might affect their future in a fundamental way to an aristocracy of the elite. Disagreement among this expert group, however, is definitely not helping the issue along, though I also suspect that the fact that this issue is still academic, and not immediate, in nature is also giving the people little reason to discuss it now. Perhaps the people will finally need to have their backs to the wall, so to speak, before they reconsider existing paradigms. If ideas pertaining to the possibility that society may need to transition from a labor-based to an automation based economy were put out into the open ahead of time, however, then people would have a body of thought to draw upon later when times get tough. The ideas behind FDR's New Deal did not originate during the Great Depression, for example; they were around for years, if not decades, before then, and out in the open. "Experts" did not keep them a secret or hold them close to vest, nor was there any "consensus" regarding their efficacy. Because these ideas were readily accessible, however, they got pulled out and utilized by Roosevelt as a result of a desperate economic situation. Does this opposition to opening a public discussion have more to do with social classism/elitism than anything else? Jon ________________________________ From: Russell Wallace [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: SPAM: Re: [singularity] The humans are dead... On 5/29/07, Jonathan H. Hinck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: There should therefore be more "politics" posts and discussions, such as we are having now. *laughs* Take a look back over this thread; there's no agreement whatsoever on any aspect of the topic, or even on meta-topics like whether the topic is safe or dangerous; nor, over the last yea many years of such arguments, has there been any move in the direction of a consensus. And that's among us supposed experts! To be honest, I think we'll need to acquire a lot more actual data before there'll be anything much accomplished by this sort of discussion even among us geeks; armchair speculation works no better as a road to truth nowadays than it did in ancient Greece. (Yes, I know that means I ought to put my keyboard where my mouth is and refrain from chipping in. I'll try!) ________________________________ This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&user_secret=7d7fb4d8
