Token message of attention-grabbing dissent for your collective pleasures:
There is no point saying ‘the world needs that first dissenter’. Tell people to be rational, tell people to avoid biases, great, but ‘dissenters can be useful’ can never be a heuristic. Who does it? When should they do it? To what degree? Pluralism is great, but we can’t say ‘let’s be pluralistic, who wants to disagree with our idea?’ Shooting yourself in the head is almost universally considered to be A Bad Thing, but that doesn’t mean we need someone to come out and advocate it so we can see the error of our ways. Stupidest person, light outside, sun shining etc. The only useful lesson I can draw from the above is ‘if your idea is universally lauded, find a devil’s advocate.’ This doesn’t happen in the real world.
Dissent can be a good thing; it keeps us honest, even when it’s wrong. But it can only ever be an emergent phenomenon, never part of the design. Everyone above—are you proud of your anecdotes of brave individuality? If so, you haven’t understood. I’d much rather reach my last breath and be able to say ‘I was true to myself,’ not ‘that clown suit really f*cked with their heads.’
Eliezer—surely getting weird looks when trying to explain your immortality scheme to the pagan types gives you get a warm fuzzy rational glow rather than a feeling of being outcast?
Oh, and either ‘camaraderie’ or ‘comradeship’ please! ;)
Certainly, dissent, or “difference” in general is “an emergent phenomenon”—but what counts, and what can be “part of the design”, is how the group chooses to treat people who are different! For example, keeping the “special ed” kids in regular school not only means the educational system stays aware of them and their issues, but it means that the “normal” kids get regular exposure to neurodiverse kids, and at least occasionally have to communicate with them.
Token message of attention-grabbing dissent for your collective pleasures:
There is no point saying ‘the world needs that first dissenter’. Tell people to be rational, tell people to avoid biases, great, but ‘dissenters can be useful’ can never be a heuristic. Who does it? When should they do it? To what degree? Pluralism is great, but we can’t say ‘let’s be pluralistic, who wants to disagree with our idea?’ Shooting yourself in the head is almost universally considered to be A Bad Thing, but that doesn’t mean we need someone to come out and advocate it so we can see the error of our ways. Stupidest person, light outside, sun shining etc. The only useful lesson I can draw from the above is ‘if your idea is universally lauded, find a devil’s advocate.’ This doesn’t happen in the real world.
Dissent can be a good thing; it keeps us honest, even when it’s wrong. But it can only ever be an emergent phenomenon, never part of the design. Everyone above—are you proud of your anecdotes of brave individuality? If so, you haven’t understood. I’d much rather reach my last breath and be able to say ‘I was true to myself,’ not ‘that clown suit really f*cked with their heads.’
Eliezer—surely getting weird looks when trying to explain your immortality scheme to the pagan types gives you get a warm fuzzy rational glow rather than a feeling of being outcast?
Oh, and either ‘camaraderie’ or ‘comradeship’ please! ;)
Certainly, dissent, or “difference” in general is “an emergent phenomenon”—but what counts, and what can be “part of the design”, is how the group chooses to treat people who are different! For example, keeping the “special ed” kids in regular school not only means the educational system stays aware of them and their issues, but it means that the “normal” kids get regular exposure to neurodiverse kids, and at least occasionally have to communicate with them.