Re E Pur Si Muove

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Peter Moody <peter.moody () gmail com>
> Date: December 16, 2017 at 10:19:46 AM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] E Pur Si Muove
>
> a rebuttal
>
> https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/941431220952584196.html
>
> > On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 12:42 AM, DAVID FARBER <dfarber () me com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff () iconia com>
> > > Date: December 16, 2017 at 2:42:58 AM EST
> > > To: E-mail Pamphleteer Dave Farber's Interesting People list <ip () listbox com>
> > > Subject: E Pur Si Muove
> > >
> > > Sam Altman: 
> > > E Pur Si Muove
> > >
> > > Earlier this year, I noticed something in China that really surprised me.  I realized I felt more comfortable 
> > > discussing controversial ideas in Beijing than in San Francisco.  I didn’t feel completely comfortable—this was 
> > > China, after all—just more comfortable than at home.
> > >
> > > That showed me just how bad things have become, and how much things have changed since I first got started here in 
> > > 2005.
> > >
> > > It seems easier to accidentally speak heresies in San Francisco every year.  Debating a controversial idea, even if 
> > > you 95% agree with the consensus side, seems ill-advised.
> > >
> > > This will be very bad for startups in the Bay Area.
> > >
> > > Restricting speech leads to restricting ideas and therefore restricted innovation—the most successful societies 
> > > have generally been the most open ones.  Usually mainstream ideas are right and heterodox ideas are wrong, but the 
> > > true and unpopular ideas are what drive the world forward.  Also, smart people tend to have an allergic reaction to 
> > > the restriction of ideas, and I’m now seeing many of the smartest people I know move elsewhere.
> > >
> > > It is bad for all of us when people can’t say that the world is a sphere, that evolution is real, or that the sun 
> > > is at the center of the solar system.
> > >
> > > More recently, I’ve seen credible people working on ideas like pharmaceuticals for intelligence augmentation, 
> > > genetic engineering, and radical life extension leave San Francisco because they found the reaction to their work 
> > > to be so toxic.  “If people live a lot longer it will be disastrous for the environment, so people working on this 
> > > must be really unethical” was a memorable quote I heard this year.
> > >
> > > To get the really good ideas, we need to tolerate really bad and wacky ideas too.  In addition to the work Newton 
> > > is best known for, he also studied alchemy (the British authorities banned work on this because they feared the 
> > > devaluation of gold) and considered himself to be someone specially chosen by the almighty for the task of decoding 
> > > Biblical scripture.  
> > >
> > > You can’t tell which seemingly wacky ideas are going to turn out to be right, and nearly all ideas that turn out to 
> > > be great breakthroughs start out sounding like terrible ideas.  So if you want a culture that innovates, you can’t 
> > > have a culture where you allow the concept of heresy—if you allow the concept at all, it tends to spread.  When we 
> > > move from strenuous debate about ideas to casting the people behind the ideas as heretics, we gradually stop debate 
> > > on all controversial ideas.
> > >
> > > This is uncomfortable, but it’s possible we have to allow people to say disparaging things about gay people if we 
> > > want them to be able to say novel things about physics. [1] Of course we can and should say that ideas are 
> > > mistaken, but we can’t just call the person a heretic.  We need to debate the actual idea. 
> > >
> > > Political correctness often comes from a good place—I think we should all be willing to make accommodations to 
> > > treat others well.  But too often it ends up being used as a club for something orthogonal to protecting actual 
> > > victims.  The best ideas are barely possible to express at all, and if you’re constantly thinking about how 
> > > everything you say might be misinterpreted, you won’t let the best ideas get past the fragment stage.
> > > [...]
> > > http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove
> > >
> > > -- 
> > > Geoff.Goodfellow () iconia com
> > > living as The Truth is True
> > > http://geoff.livejournal.com  
>
> This message was sent to the list address and trashed, but can be found online.



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