X-Message-Number: 15480
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: an argument, is it, for being apathetic?
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 13:00:29 -0000

I also said in the message to which Mr Grimes quotes that if someone *can*,
they probably will *do* whatever is within them to provide. It is pointless
jumping up and down telling people to do more - if they could they most
likely would.

These sayings come to mind

"Whatever you do, it is never enough".

"Whatever you are doing, do something else."

"You are promoted until you reach a job you can't handle, and you remain
being there, as a failure, for the rest of your life."

It is best to pace yourself and do what is useful. Everyone doing what is
*comfortably* useful is far better than people thinking "what an enormous
effort it all is" and "it may never work anyway so why waste your life on
it." "It" can just as well be cryonics or many other endeavours.

Can anyone honestly say that if they knew how to solve <one of the world's
great problems> that they would just sit back and not bother? At the very
least they'd publish their ideas son someone else could do it. Mr Grimes
quotes an excellent example of the latter: Eric Drexler. His first
publication "Engines of Creation" set many people working on nanotechnology.
And, of course, we mustn't forget "The Prospect of Immortality".

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz
my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors'
report, an autobio and various other projects:
http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt
http://www.autopsychoice.com - should you be able to chose autopsy?

> Message #15475
> From: "Jeff Grimes" <>
> Subject: To John de Rivas
> Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 02:11:00 +0000
>
> In response to a message from John De Rivas:
>
> He says, "The number of people who make the future happen are very small.
The chances of any one given individual influencing the future are extremely
small."
>
> But this isn't an argument, is it, for being apathetic? It's like saying,
"Don't bother to vote." In any case, as I understand it, only TWO (2)
scientists developed the new ice blocker for 21st Century Medicine. We don't
know if they "influenced the future" yet. But they tried. Similarly, only
ONE (1) person wrote about nanotechnology originally. Obviously it's very
convenient to say, "Oh, there's nothing I can do, I'm not qualified." But if
you haven't tried, how do you know?

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