Unknown comments on Lonely Dissent - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 28 December 2007 04:23AM

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Comment author: Unknown 28 December 2007 06:05:04AM 8 points [-]

There's a distinction between contradicting everyone else (lonely dissent) and proposing something new. Dissent takes courage, not necessarily proposing something new, because one might suppose that people will find the new thing acceptable. For example, I'm not sure that Ettinger needed more courage than modern cryonicists-- he gives the impression that he expected his idea to be accepted as an obviously great idea, once it was proposed. It seems he was rather surprised by the world's reaction.