X-Message-Number: 21130
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:50:50 -0700
Subject: Old rules/ new rules
From:  (Tim Freeman)

Some time ago I wrote:

> Message #19850
> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 07:50:36 -0700
> Subject: Explain the rule change to people (was why do we hold certain
beliefs?)
> I have had fantasies about setting up public speaking sessions
> explaining the old and new rules to random strangers to see how they
> respond, but I haven't got to it yet.  If anyone is enthusiastic about
> this and actually willing to give a talk, let me know and I'll give
> you what I have so far.

Now I'm getting to clearing out a bunch of old todo items, so here's
what I have.  Two people expressed interest in giving talks or hosting
a page, but I figure others might be interested too, so I'm sending
this to cryonet.

The rules we live by are changing.  Remember the scene from the
Indiana Jones movie where the skilled swordsman is defeated by a
revolver?  This is exactly what it happening now, but more slowly and
perhaps less violently.

Old rule:
   Biological evolution matters.
New rule:
   Technological evolution matters.
   
Old rule:
   Change is slow or nonexistent.
New rule:
   Change is fast.

Old rule:
   Sanity comes for free.
New rule:
   Sanity must be a goal.

Old rule:
   Actions based on emotion or instinct or cultural norms generally
   succeed.
New rule:
   Actions must be based on goals.  Premises must be examined
   carefully.

Old rule:
   Aging decreases options.
New rule:
   Experience broadens options.

Old rule:
   Individual death is inevitable.
New rule:
   Individual death may be avoidable.

Old rule:
   Nobody knows how the active elements in society (that is, people) work.
New rule:
   The structure of the active elements in society may be known by
   those elements.

Old rule:
   Human sexual politics and biological reproduction are very important.
New rule:
   Human sexual politics is ridiculous.  Biological reproduction is
   forseeably obsolete.

Old rule:
   Fighting requires strength.
New rule:
   Fighting requires weapons.

Old rule:
   Your instincts are evolved to cope successfully with most addictive
   substances.
New rule:
   There may be many addictive substances and experiences you do not
   respond appropriately to.

Old rule:
   Pursuing subjectively-defined goals gives reasonable results, since the
   basis for subjectivity is stable and evolved to fit with the
   environment.
New rule:
   Pursuing subjectively-defined goals fails miserably; you can easily
   change your subjective experience without making any worthwhile
   changes to tangible things.

Old rule:
   Nearly everyone has their basic dexterity and common sense, and it is
   impossible to construct cheap devices with dexterity or common sense,
   so nearly everyone has a sellable skill, or can get a sellable skill
   with a little bit of education.
New rule:
   You have to work constantly to ensure you have sellable skills,
   since skills that require significant learning tend to be become
   obsolete and skills that are easy tend to be taken over by machines.

Old rule:
   Belief in God is harmless, since there isn't anything you can do about
   death.
New rule:
   Belief in God can be lethal, since it removes the incentive to do
   things that keep you alive past the natural extent.

Old rule:
   One person can communicate with at most a few others at a time.
New rule:
   One person can communicate with many others at a time.

Old rule:
   Crowds are required for large tasks.
New rule:
   Individuals and small groups can use technology to accomplish large tasks.

Old rule:
   Imitating a randomly chosen neighbor usually works, since the
   environment changes slowly and therefore the environment in which the
   original learning happened will be similar to the present environment.
New rule:
   Imitating a randomly chosen neighbor does not work as well, since
   the environment changes quickly and therefore the environment in
   which the original learning happened is unlikely to be similar to
   the present environment.

Old rule:
   The default foundation upon which you base your life probably works.
New rule:
   The default foundation upon which you base your life probably
   doesn't work, so it is important to make a purposeful choice about
   what is important to you and how you deal with it.

So the immediate questions are:
1. What should people do in response to these ideas to live their life
   differently?  I'll leave the answer to that to the individual people.
2. What steps is it rational to take to propagate these ideas?  I
   don't know.  I am open to suggestions.  I've been sitting on these ideas
   quietly for years. 
3. Does anyone have any other old rule/new rule pairs they think are good?
4. Are there any obvious flaws in the above?  None that I can see, but
   that's just another way of saying I fixed the flaws I saw.
-- 
Tim Freeman       

GPG public key fingerprint ECDF 46F8 3B80 BB9E 575D  7180 76DF FE00 34B1 5C78 

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