I was more irritated than perhaps I should have been, and I apologize for rudeness, but I ask you in all seriousness, do you really think that the only thing that people on the left should think about is pracatical political work that might have an effect in the immediate future?
Art, philosophy, history, etc., are all irrelevant or harmful distractions? I really don't think so. First of all, it is hard to tell what might be useful. Training in philosophy of science, for example, helps you puncture bad arguments about Human Nature. But even if it didn't, we don't live by "red" alone. If you aren't interested in a particular thread or line of thought, don't follow it. There is no need to rant.
>
> I accuse all you who are promulgating this "AI"
> bullshit of this: You like
> to sound like experts about inscrutible topics. You
> like short-cuts to
> "radicalism." You think your pseudo-intellectual
> techno-worship ("andie
> nachgeborenen" admits s/he doesn't know how
> computers work, but brags about
> having "made a career" out of this kind of
> diversionary techno-jerking-off)
Well, I didn't do the AI stuff because I didn't know anything about it. But I worked in the neighborhood, more on the psychology side, and was familiar with Searle's Chinese Room argument. It may be that how computers actually work in detail matter to merits of Searle's argument, but I guess I think useful things can be said about it with only a general sort of knowledge.
> makes you gigher and better. You are in this "left"
> thing for your own
> petty and tiny egos.
Well that would be pretty stupid of us, don't you think, considering that if we just wanted to promote ourselves we'd do much better on the right, or simply being apolitical. You are angry here and being uncharitable. We are all in this because we want freedom and justice and peace and other good things. On the way, however, many of us are curious about and interested in stuff that does not directly relate, such as the nature of thought.
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