"Being exclusively human-centric. This is the elephant in the room that nobody will talk about, for fear of scaring off the donors. Humans aren't that great. I look forward to a future where I don't have to deal with them on a regular basis. Understanding the possibilities ahead of us, and yet trying to keep the future safe for humans anyway, is the greatest evil anyone has ever attempted. I study history and I still mean that literally."
What you mean by "exclusively human-centric" seems to be quite unusual and weird, if "trying to keep the future safe for humans" means that's what one is doing.
What would be evil would be *not* wanting to see to it that humans *also* will be safe in the future. Seeing to it that humans are safe will in no way limit the possibilities for "more developed" lifeforms, unless you have childish misanthropic fantasies about punishing all of the human race or something.
The future should be safe for humans just as it should be safe for future more complicated lifeforms and currently existing non-human animals. This thought isn't human-centric, it's just the responsible and emotionally mature thing to do to want to take humans into account just like all the other lifeforms.
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Re: obviousness of possible failure modes
Date: 2010-05-15 08:58 am (UTC)What you mean by "exclusively human-centric" seems to be quite unusual and weird, if "trying to keep the future safe for humans" means that's what one is doing.
What would be evil would be *not* wanting to see to it that humans *also* will be safe in the future. Seeing to it that humans are safe will in no way limit the possibilities for "more developed" lifeforms, unless you have childish misanthropic fantasies about punishing all of the human race or something.
The future should be safe for humans just as it should be safe for future more complicated lifeforms and currently existing non-human animals. This thought isn't human-centric, it's just the responsible and emotionally mature thing to do to want to take humans into account just like all the other lifeforms.