2006-01-04 19:28:42.507448+00 by ziffle 9 comments
Edge: Annual Question — 2006: What is your dangerous idea?
"Everything is pointless"
"Schools should simply cease to exist as we know them."
"A marriage option for all"
"This is all there is "
"The free market"
"We are entirely alone"
"We Have No Souls"
[ related topics: Children and growing up Sociology Economics Marriage ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-04 19:37:29.401728+00 by: Dan Lyke
I really need to do away with that misleading "Primary URL" thing. Edited to hopefully what you meant, rather than how the software interpreted it...
I'm amazed at the number of entries with the "education does not have the effect we think it does" gist...
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-04 19:48:37.061934+00 by: ziffle
Sorry - I failed blogging 101...
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-04 20:21:20.044776+00 by: Dan Lyke
My dangerous idea: There are far fewer user errors and far more failures of systems and interfaces than we acknowledge.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-04 23:30:14.270782+00 by: meuon
My dangerous idea(s):
I could get away with the things I think I could get away with.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-05 10:40:41.3809+00 by: meuon
#2: The next internet borne virus/worm/trojan also functions as a neuron, and the 'net become self aware.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-05 15:16:58.743081+00 by: ziffle
For me the seven ideas I listed as samples all seem true, and obvious, and I suppose dangerous to most people. So how do we reconcile obvious simple truths with the culture's conflicting views in our daily life?
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-05 15:50:38.882039+00 by: Dan Lyke
My first answer was to say that a dangerous idea is one that affects someone's livelyhood: That's certainly what I think I see as the inertia behind the lack of investigation of results in what passes for "education" in this culture.
But several of your examples definitely threaten something in the culture at large, and it isn't just the process of someone making a living.
I'd like to say that we need to encourage the sorts of interactions that occur in brainstorming: silence the voice which encouragers us to say "that's absurd", or "that's impossible", or "that won't work because...", and turn those into questions like "how does that work?", "what are the implications of that?" and "how could that be implemented?" so that the culture at large becomes more receptive to new ideas. What I don't know is how to manage when that swings too far the other way; the ability to accept the bizarre hypothesis becomes accepted far too readily, as happens in bits of the "new age" and "alternative medicine" communities.
There's some small distinction there, and I'm not sure how to verbalize it, but maybe working on that list of alternative questions, ways to elicit self-examination of the idea, is a place to start?
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-05 17:13:48.134544+00 by: ziffle
I want to remove "Everything is pointless" from my list as I misread it.
I remember when someone said of a future C compiler that it 'plays music' and we all laughed as it was so absurd - of course now they do play music, I concur with your viewpoint.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-05 18:23:31.310401+00 by: Dan Lyke
I've got to admit that I was kind of surprised at that, but if I take it as "Life has the meaning I bring to it", then I could buy "Life is pointless". I remember some thread on Flutterby where I commented about wanting to leave something for future generations, and Mars said something like "If you want to leave something for the ages, make sure you die in an alluvial plane so that your remains fossilize."
There's an awful lot of living for the approval of other people that happens, often subconsciously or indirectly... and that ties back in to the wanting a more open culture.