I see that 24 is very upset about the people who are in favor of the Singularity. (Eliezar Yudkowsky, for example). I think this is very odd. I mean, it's odd to be _upset_ by a very small group of people who are basically not having any particular impact on the world. I mean, he's upset about people who are interested in "downloading" their consciousness into computers, which is basically a science fiction concept at the moment. Why be upset about it?
Many of his other comments are very odd, as well.
I think that the word "troll" is very overused. To my way of thinking, it refers to a person who is "trolling" as a joke or something. Sincere people with strange ideas are not trolls. Even sincere people who are hostile, argumentative, uncooperative are not trolls. A troll is _insincere_, that is, they say things only for the shock value, only for the purpose of upsetting people.
But consider this statement: Someone wrote:
24: "the people" don't need you to speak for them. They're capable of speaking for themselves,
24 responded:
several classes of people apparently do - Great Apes, those in Developing nations without much net access or English vocabulary, and even those Anti-globalization movement types who don't participate in net or Global Greens top-down games. If they come here and say anything, they will soon be driven away by LDC, Axel Boldt, yourself, and other white trash.
Great apes (bonobos, gorillas, etc.) are a class of people for whom 24 alleges to speak? "white trash"? To me, these don't sound like positions sincerely held, but positions chosen simply to generate more heat than light.
--Jimbo