Sorry? Of course he was sorry. People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it was. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped. …
Sorrow be damned, and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming.
I read this as a poetic invocation against utilitarian sacrifices. It seems to me simultaneously wise on a practical level and bankrupt on a theoretical level.
What about the special case of people prepared to be maimed and killed in order to get in someone’s way? I guess it depends whether you share goals with the latter someone.
If I don’t share goals with someone, or more strongly, if I consider their goals evil… then I will see their meta actions differently, because at the end, the meta actions are just a tool for something else. If some people build a perfect superintelligent paperclip maximizer, I will hate the fact that they were able to overcome procrastination, that they succeeded in overcoming their internal conflicts, that they made good strategical decisions about getting money and smart people for their project, etc.
So perhaps the quote could be understood as a complaint against people in the valley of bad rationality. Smart enough to put their plans successfully in action; yet too stupid to understand that their plans will end hurting people. Smart enough to later realize they made a mistake and feel sorry; yet too stupid to realize they shouldn’t make a similar kind of plan with similar kinds of mistakes again.
Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks.
I read this as a poetic invocation against utilitarian sacrifices. It seems to me simultaneously wise on a practical level and bankrupt on a theoretical level.
What about the special case of people prepared to be maimed and killed in order to get in someone’s way? I guess it depends whether you share goals with the latter someone.
If I don’t share goals with someone, or more strongly, if I consider their goals evil… then I will see their meta actions differently, because at the end, the meta actions are just a tool for something else. If some people build a perfect superintelligent paperclip maximizer, I will hate the fact that they were able to overcome procrastination, that they succeeded in overcoming their internal conflicts, that they made good strategical decisions about getting money and smart people for their project, etc.
So perhaps the quote could be understood as a complaint against people in the valley of bad rationality. Smart enough to put their plans successfully in action; yet too stupid to understand that their plans will end hurting people. Smart enough to later realize they made a mistake and feel sorry; yet too stupid to realize they shouldn’t make a similar kind of plan with similar kinds of mistakes again.