Principia Discordia > Techmology and Scientism
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could....
Cramulus:
These days, we get revolutionary new science every few months. Some of it's good, some of it's bad, some of it is so wild that we can't predict what it'll actually be used for. When you see people on facebook/etc talking about any new tech, you will always see some variation of a line from Jurassic Park:
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."
also substitute "here comes skynet"
Lately, this sentiment has struck me as well-meaning but clueless, sorta like the statement "Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to have kids." Like, can you imagine how awful that would be in actual reality? Issuing pregnacy licenses, and linking them to some kind of intelligence test designed by white college-grads? ANY implementation would be a mess.
CAN YOU IMAGINE if research actually stopped because "it might lead to bad unintended consequences"? What would that look like 50, 100, 1000 years later?
We would have these FORBIDDEN TOPICS that you are not allowed to research or question. Machine Learning could be put in this black box where we try to keep it from being developed (though IDK how you'd even enforce that). We can't let the economy be destablized, so we need this check against researchers and scientists. They could be fined or jailed for researching Things That Lead to Skynet. And then we can enjoy civilization as it stands now, forever! Just imagine if the Ancient Greeks had adopted this policy, we'd still be wearing togas and yelling SPARTAAA at each other, like god intended.
and then --- I say that, but...
I guess the nuclear nonproliferation treaty basically IS what I'm describing.
Doktor Howl:
--- Quote from: Cramulus on January 29, 2020, 07:29:07 pm ---These days, we get revolutionary new science every few months. Some of it's good, some of it's bad, some of it is so wild that we can't predict what it'll actually be used for. When you see people on facebook/etc talking about any new tech, you will always see some variation of a line from Jurassic Park:
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."
also substitute "here comes skynet"
Lately, this sentiment has struck me as well-meaning but clueless, sorta like the statement "Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to have kids." Like, can you imagine how awful that would be in actual reality? Issuing pregnacy licenses, and linking them to some kind of intelligence test designed by white college-grads? ANY implementation would be a mess.
CAN YOU IMAGINE if research actually stopped because "it might lead to bad unintended consequences"? What would that look like 50, 100, 1000 years later?
We would have these FORBIDDEN TOPICS that you are not allowed to research or question. Machine Learning could be put in this black box where we try to keep it from being developed (though IDK how you'd even enforce that). We can't let the economy be destablized, so we need this check against researchers and scientists. They could be fined or jailed for researching Things That Lead to Skynet. And then we can enjoy civilization as it stands now, forever! Just imagine if the Ancient Greeks had adopted this policy, we'd still be wearing togas and yelling SPARTAAA at each other, like god intended.
and then --- I say that, but...
I guess the nuclear nonproliferation treaty basically IS what I'm describing.
--- End quote ---
This. Humans are not designed for "DON'T". I never ask if I should. I ask "will it be cool?"
Cool is what got us flush toilets and the computer upon which I am writing this.
"SECRETS MAN WAS NOT MEANT TO KNOW!" Well, now I gotta.
tyrannosaurus vex:
Science evolved from primitive man's frantic quest to look under every rock and fallen tree for an answer to his questions about why he woke up one day and found himself stranded on a big mudball hanging in the middle of nowhere, and more specifically who was responsible. Nuclear bombs and striped toothpaste are nice, but they're only side effects of this quest. I don't think it's possible to stop scientific progress in its tracks, or even to sweep it under the rug for very long, because it's just sort of something that happens like collateral damage in our various wars against our own befuddlement. Questions about whether or not we "should" are inherently moot. Nobody decided to make the H-Bomb, at least not until most of the work had been done already by people who were trying to find out if God had been hiding inside the atom this whole time.
Doktor Howl:
--- Quote from: tyrannosaurus vex on January 29, 2020, 07:57:41 pm ---Science evolved from primitive man's frantic quest to look under every rock and fallen tree for an answer to his questions about why he woke up one day and found himself stranded on a big mudball hanging in the middle of nowhere, and more specifically who was responsible. Nuclear bombs and striped toothpaste are nice, but they're only side effects of this quest. I don't think it's possible to stop scientific progress in its tracks, or even to sweep it under the rug for very long, because it's just sort of something that happens like collateral damage in our various wars against our own befuddlement. Questions about whether or not we "should" are inherently moot. Nobody decided to make the H-Bomb, at least not until most of the work had been done already by people who were trying to find out if God had been hiding inside the atom this whole time.
--- End quote ---
Science evolved from primitive man's frantic quest to kill his neighbor.
And then paint mad smack about it in a cave in France.
Doktor Howl:
That being said, Vex is still right.
And when we find God, there's going to be a little chat. With Doc Martins and big shitty sticks.
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