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TheOtherDave comments on Abandoning Cached Selves to Re-Write My Source Code Partially, I've Become Unstable - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: diegocaleiro 10 October 2012 05:47PM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 11 October 2012 03:52:00PM 2 points [-]

I agree with your guess. I additionally suspect that the ability to move without restraint (e.g., flying chariots) and the ability to spy on one's neighbors without being seen (e.g., invisibility and/or clairvoyance) are also human fantasies of long standing which precede the development of hot air balloons or television.

Comment author: V_V 11 October 2012 04:18:06PM *  1 point [-]

Agreed. In some sense you can always trace any technological innovation to some long-standing need or desire, but it would be an historical distortion to read ex-post any expression of these desires as a technological prediction.

A paleolithic man could easily have said: "I would really like to hear from my cousin Urk who went the other way when our tribe split." That doesn't mean he's predicting Facebook.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 11 October 2012 05:09:58PM 2 points [-]

Yup.

Completely unrelatedly, the narrative conceit of paleolithic speakers who are capable of complex syntax but nevertheless use grunts for names never fails to entertain me.

Comment author: V_V 11 October 2012 09:09:34PM 1 point [-]

Tradition. Why do you have the name of some Jewish king who lived 3000 years ago? XD