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by sashank_1509 549 days ago
Don’t obfuscate, your view is that the stack overflow commentator, Quora answer writer, blog writer, in fact anyone who did not invent the knowledge he’s disseminating, is committing a small amount of evil. That is radical and makes no sense to me.
2 comments
bmacho 549 days ago
> Don’t obfuscate, your view is that the stack overflow commentator, Quora answer writer, blog writer, in fact anyone who did not invent the knowledge he’s disseminating, is committing a small amount of evil.

:/ No, it's not? I've written "haven't caused any problem" and "harmless". You've changed it to "small harm" that I've indeed missed.

I don't think that things that don't cause any problem are evil. That's a ridiculous claim, and I don't understand why would you want me to say that. For example I think 10 billion pandas living here on Earth with us would be bad for humanity. Does that mean that I think that 1 panda is a minute of evil? No, I think it's harmless, maybe even a net good for humanity. I think the same about Quora commenters.

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chefandy 547 days ago
Yes, that dichotomy is present everywhere in the real world.

You need lye to make proper bagels. It is not merely harmless, but beneficial in small amounts for that purpose. We still must make sure food businesses don't contaminate food with it; it could cause severe — possibly fatal — esophageal burns. The "A little is beneficial but a lot is deleterious" also applies to many vitamins… water… cops?

Trying to turn this into an “it’s either always good or always bad” dichotomy serves no purpose but to make straw men.

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Riverheart 549 days ago
Not a nice interpretation of what is being said.

Clearly there is nuance that society compromises on certain things that would be problematic at scale because it benefits society. Sharing learned information disadvantages people who make a career of creating and compiling that information but you know, humans need to learn to get jobs and acquire capital to live and, surprisingly, die and along with them that information.

Or framing the issue another way, people living isn’t a problem but people living forever would be. Scale/time matters.

Here again I’ve fallen for the HN comment section. Defend your view point if you like I have no additional commentary on this.

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