X-Message-Number: 27789
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 20:32:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Dan Hitt <>
Subject: Are we really capable of independent thinking?

Billy wrote in post 27783 (replying to some of Rudi's ideas along
similar lines):

  I keep telling people that we should not choose our friends by their
  belief systems.  It seems to me that most of us are a product of our
  past and very few, if any of us can step out of that.  Which brings
  up the question, Are we really capable of independent thinking?

All of this is good food for thought.

I think we're capable of independent thinking, but just not much of
it: it's takes a lot of time, energy, and effort.  If it takes several
days to realize some idea is right (or wrong), we just won't have time
to deal with very many of them.

Rafi wrote very insightfully about this a long time ago (post 12040),
in a post provocatively called "People ignore cryonics because it
makes sense to ignore it".

But if we follow Billy's advice to not choose our friends by their
belief systems, and follow Rafi's advice to try to get cryonics in
through the back door if the front door is locked, maybe we can
spread.

dan

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