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JoshuaZ comments on Flowers for Algernon - Less Wrong Discussion

32 Post author: Anatoly_Vorobey 18 June 2014 09:16AM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 29 June 2014 12:56:56PM -1 points [-]

I read it many years ago- it is well written but has a terrible message, and is a really good example of how much good writing can be used to deliver bad messages. The essential lesson is that being smarter can be much worse, unintended consequences, hubris of humanity, etc. And as is often the case with this sort of thing, rather than actually examine the implications of a technology that would make people smarter, it has to turn out that the effect is only temporary. Why? Because otherwise the deck wouldn't be stacked the way Keyes wants it to be stacked.