Here we seem to be discussing the policy of down-voting the wolf-crier who doesn’t come with recent video footage of the wolf. I figure that is reasonable if there is reasonable independent evidence of no wolf, or a history of false positives—but otherwise not.
Remember the context of the comment linked upthread: this is someone voicing accusations of groupthink in the “Survey of Anti-Cryonics Writing” post… the equivalent of crying wolf in the middle of a quiet evening in the sheepfold.
The post tries to make a general point, not confined to one particular comment.
The “cryonics groupthink” accusation is not obviously wrong. IMO, it probably has some truth to it. Blogs naturally attract like-minded individuals. There are often major “yes men” effects at work—along with mindless copying of group ideas, eagerness to display badges of group membership—and so on.
IMO, there is more to it than groupthink. Identification with your ego is ubiquitous in western society—and the expression of that in geeks tends to result in an interest in cryonics. Ultimately, it probably has something to do with traditional western religions being so farcical, while western secular institutions offer little guidance.
Here we seem to be discussing the policy of down-voting the wolf-crier who doesn’t come with recent video footage of the wolf. I figure that is reasonable if there is reasonable independent evidence of no wolf, or a history of false positives—but otherwise not.
Remember the context of the comment linked upthread: this is someone voicing accusations of groupthink in the “Survey of Anti-Cryonics Writing” post… the equivalent of crying wolf in the middle of a quiet evening in the sheepfold.
The post tries to make a general point, not confined to one particular comment.
The “cryonics groupthink” accusation is not obviously wrong. IMO, it probably has some truth to it. Blogs naturally attract like-minded individuals. There are often major “yes men” effects at work—along with mindless copying of group ideas, eagerness to display badges of group membership—and so on.
IMO, there is more to it than groupthink. Identification with your ego is ubiquitous in western society—and the expression of that in geeks tends to result in an interest in cryonics. Ultimately, it probably has something to do with traditional western religions being so farcical, while western secular institutions offer little guidance.