C'mon, sama, pg, et al. have a robust hold on wealth/power/etc. The post was about heresy = unorthodoxy, vs. a "church-state orthodoxy" enforced by penal code. Sounds exaggerated, but IMHO it is worth looking at covert/sub-violent means to same end. Also at _cui bono_, as usual.
-
-
Replying to @BrendanEich
I don't think there's a whole lot of heresy along the lines of his original post ("doing something the government had already decided was too hard") in practice in SV. If he wants to discuss actual heterodoxies that he thinks actually exist and are dangerous, let's enumerate.
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @wycats
I'm not "he" who "wants to discuss" (but ICYMI, see https://elaineou.com/2017/11/24/stuff-you-cant-say-in-silicon-valley/ …). All societies punish deviance from norms, some more than others. The Enlightenment project differed only in degree. It's dead now, no going back. The most interesting part of sama's post was re: China.
3 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @BrendanEich
I don't buy the China point, having also spent years in SF and having travelled to China. It must be some kind of VC-specific perspective.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
-
Replying to @BrendanEich @wycats
Beyond that, from sama’s text itself + work Steve Hsu was involved in, Chinese efforts to identify alleles associated with intelligence + greater willingness to gene-engineer humans (https://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-fix-genetic-disorder-in-cloned-human-embryos-1.22694 …) = designer people. This is problematic but also likely very profitable.
2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @BrendanEich
I can believe that if a VC is very interested in profitable ideas that Americans have moral qualms about, there might be some cases where such a VC would find it easier to discuss them in China.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @wycats @BrendanEich
I also am surprised that the "sense of freedom" about being able to talk about (things like) designer babies more freely is making
@sama think of China as freer in this way.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
That aspect is not surprising.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @BrendanEich @sama
I guess I don't consider it constricting in the way
@sama is describing that American norms cause us to be more skittish about starting certain kinds of companies ("designer babies") and don't see it as evidence that "wow! China is freer than SV!"2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
You could probably also talk more openly about building software to help the government subvert elections, for instance.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.