X-Message-Number: 30518
From: "GC" <>
References: <>
Subject: Freeman's Comments
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:44:59 -0600

>If Alcor were a representative democracy, I'd want a culture of ensuring
that the people participating in these forums are identified by their true
names.  Otherwise we >have the following scenario:
>
>   Dave Pizer (a true name):  I want X!
 >  Finance Department/knotwiller and 10 other pseudonyms: I want X!
>
>Now look at this from the viewpoint of an Alcor director.  How many people
want X enough to speak up about it?  The number could be anywhere from 1 to
12, since >>we don't know whether any of these pseudonyms are different
people from each other or from Pizer.  It seems pretty hopeless for a human
Alcor director to keep >>track >of the uncertainty -- in practice, they'll
probably assume knotwiller and Pizer are different people.  When the time
comes to make a policy decision and to do >what the constituency wants,
they'll have an intuitive feel for how many people want what, and whoever
makes the largest set of plausibly distinct pseudonyms who >passionately
advocate a policy will have the most influence.



I have to agree with Tim's comments, everyday, I read a few messages that
largely say they same thing by the same group of people (no offense
intended).

I personally don't care one way or the other.  I'm more republic oriented
than democracy oriented.  I'm way to busy to worry about every conceivable
decision if the US were a democracy, or even if Alcor were a democracy.

Moreover, who the heck would want an Alcor Director job?  You would think
with a small group of people with a common goal, we would all be a lot more
civil and respectful, but frankly, I've seen larger, much less educated and
intelligent groups behave FAR better...  Lots of squeaky wheels want change
(no offense again, I especially have HUGE respect for Pizer), but are you
ready to deal with the consequences?  Are you going to make the time and
pony up to fill the vacancies and resultant oversight that you want?  I
personally would not, and am thankful for those who perform these duties on
my behalf.

Greg Crouse

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