>>This does not argue against all technical progress, it argues against ignoring the cost to future generations.
Creative way of reading Andi's comment. Congratulations. I can see how someone could formulate a position like that, given that he/she is used to argue with people with certain opinions.
The problem, as I noted twice above, is that the other comments shows that Andi is a crazy Luddite which argues against cities. No facts, no references -- lots of claims. (There is a lower environmental impact with half the population in cities than if you spread them out all over the countryside. At leasts without doing a Green Khmer reorg...)
Now I have repeated that point three(?) times. You have acknowledged it without touching it twice. I've given a link. Enough.
And yes, it is theoretically possible that the Chinese commit a country-wide economic suicide by not starting to clean up e.g. pollution from coal. But stupidity is not the common sin of the Chinese leaders... (Strip mining and destroying inner Mongolia is another matter.)
Or are you claiming it is economically efficient to not clean up and accept health problems for a large part of the work force? Sure, the Chinese leadership is competent and would be cynical enough... That would be interesting -- do you have references?
Thanks for your reply.
I spell out in no uncertain terms how the comment proves what I'm claiming, and you think I'm getting creative? At what point do you think I got creative? How well do you score in reading comprehension? I have a feeling we would get along just fine if we were communicating on the same level, or as native speakers of the same language.
Andi's other comments don't show anything of the sort, and are irrelevant, you can point it out as much as you want - you won't get any marks for it. I think you've typecast Andi as a crazy luddite very unfairly. You are putting quite a lot of extra words into his mouth.
Andi did not argue against all technical progress, he argues against ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for future generations.
One more time: there is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations. Do you agree with this statement or not?
>>This kind of technical view is religious but is usually not called religion.
So you are wrong -- Andi really meant what he said.
So much for your claim of proof.
(I accept that, given enough strange people to argue with, a reasonable person -- a non-Luddite/-econazi -- might have written what "Andi" wrote. Even if it seems unlikely. But "Andi" is not reasonable...)
>> Andi's other comments don't show anything of the sort, and are irrelevant
See above -- Andi is just plain weird, your guess is very unlikely. Also, you made that claim without touching that I've commented on his weird comments three times, even gave a link.
My troll detector isn't sensitive enough.
>> ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations
And for nuclear power -- you haven't show that there is a net cost to future generations (not just creation of useful materials for their accelerator reactors).
Note also that the present humanity do research and infrastructure now, which will make future generations' lives better. (Which certainly is a religious view, according to Andi.)
(Also, there are lots of radioactive materials in nature. See my proof-of-principle solution.)
Excuse my lack of a reply this evening, I've been busy today - I'll respond tomorrow. If you have time could you please tell me what your proof of principle solution refers to,
Thanks.
>>This kind of technical view is religious but is usually not called religion.
This poorly constructed sentence shows me to be wrong does it? It somehow refutes my claim? How exactly? Have you ever heard the phrase quasi-religious? Perhaps you should have some sympathy for someone with Andi's dearth of vocabulary. It adds nothing to his earlier comment and takes nothing away from it either.
You are making Andi out to be the unabomber, he does seem like a reasonable person - you are completely overreacting to all of his comments for some utterly bizarre reason. His comments are irrelevant to what we are talking about. Your whole basis of argument now is that Andi is some sort of certifiable nutcase. Time and again I've said his comments are not relevant, nor do they show anything of the sort, what has you so agitated about the one in the link you provided?
Even if you were somehow magically correct in delivering a devastating psychoanalysis of Andi, over the internet based on some comments, you can't argue with this: there is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations. But you continue to. Do you disagree with this statement? It's what I'm calling you out on, and you seem to have a massive problem with it.
What proof of principle solution? Your oil well suggestion is no solution to anything. Are you referring to something else perhaps?
I'm sure they have pulled and will continue to pull lots of useful materials out of the areas and people near e.g. Fukushima and Chernobyl that our past, current and future research will make useful for future generations: cancerous thyroid glands, contaminated milk, water and aquatic life with 2Sv of radiation in it, irradiated metal and farmland.
To demonstrate that there is a net cost of nuclear power to future generations: accept that nuclear plants are supported by tax breaks, and the cost of shutting down nuclear plants is so great that it cannot be undertaken by their owners and caretakers. This must be undertaken by the state taxpayer. After they have been shut down, the waste cannot be processed by current technology and must be stored and protected by the taxpayer. When the plants are no longer generating profit - the vain hope for the enterprise to benefit future generations is that someone invents some way of processing their waste. This is the same vain hope those had when they built these reactors in the the 50s/60s/70s. Sure, they produced power for a few decades - the waste however will cost taxpayer money for millennia.
I will repeat myself again, perhaps you may notice this time: there is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
I gave a perfectly clear explanation of what he wrote in case you had any difficulty in reading it. Which, as it turns out you did. When confronted with this, you accuse me of getting creative and now say the clear explanation is strained. I will remind you that earlier you accepted the explanation as something a reasonable person might say (you qualified it saying it would be unlikely). They are two very simple sentences and the logic as I demonstrated is quite easy to follow. I think that perhaps you have misread them the first time, and are now just being stubborn.
You then moved on to trying to make Andi out to be some sort of miscreant to justify your argument. Andi didn't write other strange things. What Andi wrote in the first place wasn't strange either, Andi has not shown himself to be a stupid luddite.
In future if you are going to quote what I write or anyone else writes you would do well to include in full the part of the sentence you are responding to:
>>Time and again I've said [Andi's] comments are not relevant, nor do they show anything of the sort, what has you so agitated about the one in the link you provided?
I've said that the other things that Andi wrote were not relevant, and that they aren't strange. You can't say that I accepted he wrote other strange things, again we are back to you trying to put words into other peoples mouths.
You made no points about R&D, I asked you twice about your proof of principle solution and can find no comments by you referring to them, you are being extremely cheeky accusing me of ignoring things.
At the risk of repeating myself, I'm getting deja vu here: there is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
I'll just add another comment by "Andi", after the previous where he saw technical progress as a "religion"... This is also hardly coherent, but obviously anti-research and Luddite.
And here is the first: "This is the classical view of people who see technical progress as a kind of god given fact or as the natural direction humanity must take."
Pasting links does not an argument make, it also does not take a lot of effort. You've made few if any valid arguments, throughout the course of this discussion. To repeat an argument - first you have to make an argument.
Again I will help you with your obvious difficulties in reading comprehension, although I cannot help you with your stubbornness.
In the link you pasted Andi makes a short comment about education being more important than technical progress (especially technical progress at all costs). This is not anti research, and this is not Luddite. It's pro education! It's very important to read those last three words 'at all costs'.
If you have a look here at a comment in the same thread:
>> Of course it is OK and important - especially for the poorer countries - to make power cheaper. But NEVER at all costs.
See the phrase 'at all costs' he used in the later comment you refer to? Nowhere does he make an argument against all progress, he's arguing against ignoring the the cost ('at all costs') of nuclear reactors for future generations. He even argues for making power cheaper for people in poorer countries. Hardly the behaviour of a Luddite, don't you think?!
So these comments are irrelevant to our discussion, and they do not show Andi to have Luddite opinions.
Here's the question that you have gone to enormous lengths to ignore - one more time, and strangely, I amn't tired asking you again:
There is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
I made fun of a guy that wrote anti-technological arguments about expecting technical solutions to problems as being a "religion".
The guy wrote the same thing in multiple other comments.
You call me on that -- and write WALLS of text, insisting that the first comment was only about nuclear tech and that the other comments (note, pluralis) are irrelevant for other unlikely reasons.
If you didn't put time into writing well, I'd be certain you're a troll.
So congratulations, you got another comment out of me. I must assume that is your motivation into writing possible explanations for what "Andi" really means, when he wrote the same thing multiple times.
If you are going to make fun of people, make sure to read what they write carefully. Otherwise you might make yourself to look less intelligent than you are. It's not persuasive to try to make out that the person you have a disagreement with is crazy.
Andi really didn't write what you say he did, and he certainly didn't write "anti-technological arguments about expecting technical solutions to problems as being a "religion"." in one comment or multiple other comments. It's really pointless to try and put words into people's mouths like that.
I'll take your admission about how you 'made fun of a guy' as you agreeing that is no forced binary choice to be made between living as luddites, and ignoring the cost of nuclear reactors for nature and future generations.
Creative way of reading Andi's comment. Congratulations. I can see how someone could formulate a position like that, given that he/she is used to argue with people with certain opinions.
The problem, as I noted twice above, is that the other comments shows that Andi is a crazy Luddite which argues against cities. No facts, no references -- lots of claims. (There is a lower environmental impact with half the population in cities than if you spread them out all over the countryside. At leasts without doing a Green Khmer reorg...)
Here is a link:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2601330
Now I have repeated that point three(?) times. You have acknowledged it without touching it twice. I've given a link. Enough.
And yes, it is theoretically possible that the Chinese commit a country-wide economic suicide by not starting to clean up e.g. pollution from coal. But stupidity is not the common sin of the Chinese leaders... (Strip mining and destroying inner Mongolia is another matter.)
Or are you claiming it is economically efficient to not clean up and accept health problems for a large part of the work force? Sure, the Chinese leadership is competent and would be cynical enough... That would be interesting -- do you have references?