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In the eighth grade I had an english teacher who challenged us to write either a serious essay or a piece of satire, with the goal of getting half the class to
by damoncali 11y ago
In the eighth grade I had an english teacher who challenged us to write either a serious essay or a piece of satire, with the goal of getting half the class to believe it was satire and the other half to think it was serious.
I do believe this would have won.
- mjfl 11y agoI have no idea why these kinds of misanthropic ideas, having little or nothing to do with programming or entrepreneurship, get this kind of attention on Hacker News.
- tomc1985 11y agoBecause they're interesting. And this is a place of interesting things.
- trollingineer 11y agoHackerNews - chock full of pseudointellectuals.
- shoo 11y agoI think some people who read hacker news may be interested in discussions of the increasingly serious challenges facing us as individuals, communities, and as a species. Compared to many people in the world, I suspect that those people reading hacker news may have a relatively large opportunity to influence others, for better or worse. If we discuss these kinds of issues there is a small chance that some people will decide to act in a way that is more beneficial to others, society, & the environment.
- mjfl 11y agoIt's backwards thinking, based on a moralization that mother nature is all good and human beings are all bad. If you look at all the problems associated with the "human overcrowding" problem, the solution is more knowledge, not less people. To stop overpopulation: educate and empower women. To slow carbon emissions: keep track and educate people about the consequences. You can join this particular doomsday cult if you so desire, as long as you don't try to prevent me from reproducing. I will still roll my eyes at you, but nothing more.
- johnny22 11y agoI like to take an interest in what other folks of a similar mind are involved in, even outside of programming/computers. There are more than a few (semi)well-known programmers who are actually involved in or otherwise support the VHEMT.
- damoncali 11y agoI enjoy them. I still can't tell if this one is real or intended as humor. That's fascinating to me.
- mirimir 11y agoPoe's law: "[W]ithout a clear indicator of the author's intent, parodies of extremism are indistinguishable from sincere expressions of extremism."[0] [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- damoncali 11y agoI believe we were studying Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" at the time. Now that I think about it, it was probably more like 10th grade. But it was an informative exercise, as I've since found that many good ideas also fall into this category along with all the nutty ones.