6 ms·
The classic tale of hindsight, undoing the wrongs of the past where labelling progressive and forward thinkers "insane" was commonplace. I wonder if we will lo
by deanclatworthy 12y ago
The classic tale of hindsight, undoing the wrongs of the past where labelling progressive and forward thinkers "insane" was commonplace.
I wonder if we will look back on the forward thinkers of today (Stallman, Assange et. al) in 50 years and regret the scepticism which we throw their way today.
- vacri 12y agoThere is considerable selection bias here. Lots of crazy ideas are pooh-pooh'd because, well, they're crazy. Have a look at a random assortment of patents, for example.
- ColinWright 12y agoRelevant: But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -- Carl Sagan
- zkhalique 12y agoI'd say Bozo was a genius! http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Larry-Harmon-the-real-genius-behind-Bozo-the-3205801.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Larry-Harmon-the-real-gen...
- rodgerd 12y agoAlso, there are no shortages of examples of people who have great ideas in one domain (DNA, polio vaccine) who have terrible ideas in others (racism, vitamin C as a cureall).
- soup10 12y agoBoth Stallman and Assange's philosophies are hugely well known and influential. Most of the criticism thrown their way comes from how they court controversy for attention.
- deanclatworthy 12y agoThey are well known in our circles (which are tiny), but to the wider public (and world) they are not.
- DanAndersen 12y agoI don't mean to sound critical here, but I find it interesting that, quite often, discussions like this assume that who the speaker likes or the ideologies the speaker accepts are the ones that will be vindicated in the future. I'm reminded of AskReddit threads, where people ask "what will people 100 years look back on our time and think was crazy?" and the top responses are always relatively uncontroversial (e.g. "people will look back and wonder how we could have banned gay marriage"). I wonder if there have been any good discussions, on HN or Reddit or somewhere, that focus on that question from the perspective of "what kinds of things will people believe in in the future, things for which I'll be on the 'wrong side of history'?"
- hitekker 12y agoExcellent question. I believe the self-reflection you're referring to is pretty much impossible to cultivate in an online community. Especially one that has entered into the public sphere, like a default sub-reddit. If what you say goes against a pillar of the culture of the community (or offends a sizable portion of said community), you're likely to get castigated, and maybe even outcasted. From the perspective of a moderator, perhaps the best thing to do is to cull the excess negativity and triumphant navel-gazing that perennially afflicts the more idealogical forums.
- CJefferson 12y agoThis is something I've tried really hard to think about, and it is indeed very difficult. I'm a meat eater, and don't intend to stop. That's the best thing I can think of where I expect to be seen as horrible 100 years from now. In the case of current online communities, I hope the current habit of picking one comment someone made, or one photo they took, and the whole internet attacking them for it, will be seen as unacceptable. (I'm not talking about people doing things genuinely terrible, but doing things which lots of people do every day, but then one person, for some reason, gets into the public sphere for it).
- krallja 12y agopg's Things You Can't Say (2004) http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html is really thought-provoking on this topic.