The People from the horror stories are out there.
There__ a fascinating frailty of the human mind that psychologists know all about, called __rgument from ignorance._ This is how it goes. Remember what the ___ stands for in __FO_? You see lights flashing in the sky. You__e never seen anything like this before and don__ understand what it is. You say, __t__ a UFO!_ The ___ stands for __nidentified.__ut then you say, __ don__ know what it is; it must be aliens from outer space, visiting from another planet._ The issue here is that if you don__ know what something is, your interpretation of it should stop immediately. You don__ then say it must be X or Y or Z. That__ argument from ignorance. It__ common. I__ not blaming anybody; it may relate to our burning need to manufacture answers because we feel uncomfortable about being steeped in ignorance.
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
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There__ a fascinating frailty of the human mind that psychologists know all about, called __rgument from ignorance._ This is how it goes. Remember what the ___ stands for in __FO_? You see lights flashing in the sky. You__e never seen anything like this before and don__ understand what it is. You say, __t__ a UFO!_ The ___ stands for __nidentified.__ut then you say, __ don__ know what it is; it must be aliens from outer space, visiting from another planet._ The issue here is that if you don__ know what something is, your interpretation of it should stop immediately. You don__ then say it must be X or Y or Z. That__ argument from ignorance. It__ common. I__ not blaming anybody; it may relate to our burning need to manufacture answers because we feel uncomfortable about being steeped in ignorance.
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The adjuration to be "normal" seems shockingly repellent to me; I see neither hope nor comfort in sinking to that low level. I think it is ignorance that makes people think of abnormality only with horror and allows them to remain undismayed at the proximity of "normal" to average and mediocre. For surely anyone who achieves anything is, a priori, abnormal.
Very often people have a very limited way of thinking.
The paradoxical situation with a vast number of people today is that they are half asleep when awake, and half awake when asleep, or when they want to sleep.
While a number of people have pointed out the various costs and drawbacks of sentience, few if any have taken the next step and wondered out loud if the whole damn thing isn't more trouble than it's worth. Of course it is, people assume; otherwise natural selection would have weeded it out long ago. And they're probably right. I hope they are. "Blindsight" is a thought experiment, a game of "Just suppose" and "What if". Nothing more.On the other hand, the dodos and the Steller sea cows could have used exactly the same argument to prove their own superioirity, a thousand years ago: "if we're so unfit, why haven't we gone extinct?" Why? Because natural selection takes time, and luck plays a role. The biggest boys on the block at any given time aren't necessarily the fittest, or the most efficient, and the game isn't over. The game is never over; there's no finish line this side of heat death. And so, neither can there be any winners. There are only those who haven't yet lost.
Juggernaut of ignorance marauds the voices of wisdom. That explains the ultra anxious, subconsciously depressed minds trying to justify their irascible behaviour. Thus, unsettling the collective consciousness before they justify their aggressive view points.