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Magnifica Humanitas

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Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#701

Post by thuridas »

michaelsbradley wrote: post #362
devilbunny wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Roman Catholic Church has a lot of things wrong with it, now and in the past, but it’s a human institution older than almost any other, and it’s composed of a lot of very intelligent people. Agree or disagree with them, but a papal encyclical is almost always worth reading and understanding.

There are so many encyclicals, apostolic letters, etc. One could spend years reading just a fraction of them, depending on reading and comprehension speed, of course, which varies by person. Two I recommend, from the last 40 years: Veritatis splendor , John Paul II, 1993 Argues that Christian freedom is fulfilled, not limited, by objective moral truth: some acts are intrinsically evil regardless of intention or circu…

Note that, as anybody, the Catholic Church may have is bias.

For example. Their dualist view of the world makes them see AI as something very different from human intelligence. So, without having read it, the church may negate that it could be at human level. A few years ago that would negate that computers could be creative because they do not have a soul.

Anyway, kudos for focussing on the important issues and the impact on human.(And less on sex)

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#702

Post by girvo »

zimpenfish wrote: post #677
wowoc wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, there is a much simpler explanation: virtually all English-speaking Catholics dig Tolkien.

I had a look and yeah, Popes quoting Tolkien does seem to be a thing, at least in the last couple of decades.

It’s a whole thing. The priest at my high school was way into Tolkien and, more interestingly to me as a teenager: the Wolfenstein series of games!

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#703

Post by rluna828 »

Paracompact wrote: post #683
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #650

I'm curious if there has ever been an instance where people have been able to "tame" a technology to consider a broader, societal good, or if we've always just been at the whims of how any particular tech naturally concentrates or dissipates power. For example, if you look at the boom of the middle classes in the mid 20th century, this appears to me largely a consequence of the fact that industrial technology at the…

We have (for now) restrained ourselves from the more vicious applications of technology to war, in the form of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Although I could see the argument being made that such has not occurred for strictly humanitarian reasons, but instead as a predictable consequence of game theory. In less important matters, we've regulated many harmful substances that the free market would love to…

Many regulatory regimes ebb and flow as societies rediscover from first principles why something was banned (or not banned) by the people before them.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#704

Post by amelius »

redfloatplane wrote: post #2

> As Pope Francis warned, we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it: “It must also be recognized that nuclear energy, biotechnology, information technology, knowledge of our own DNA, and many other abilities which we have acquired… have given those with the knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the…

The pope can say a lot of things, but not everybody on this planet is Christian.

So even if we restrict the power of AI, others may not. And this might turn out to be a mistake.

I just hope this is taken into account.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#705

Post by [deleted] »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #650

I'm curious if there has ever been an instance where people have been able to "tame" a technology to consider a broader, societal good, or if we've always just been at the whims of how any particular tech naturally concentrates or dissipates power. For example, if you look at the boom of the middle classes in the mid 20th century, this appears to me largely a consequence of the fact that industrial technology at the…

[deleted]

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#706

Post by vrganj »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #675
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #650

I'm curious if there has ever been an instance where people have been able to "tame" a technology to consider a broader, societal good, or if we've always just been at the whims of how any particular tech naturally concentrates or dissipates power. For example, if you look at the boom of the middle classes in the mid 20th century, this appears to me largely a consequence of the fact that industrial technology at the…

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people." The whole idea of "taming technology" starts from a flawed premise. The problem is with people, not the technology.

People kill people using guns.

> firearms accounted for 78% of all mechanisms used in homicides between 2018 and 2025.

https://ammo.com/research/murders-by-weapon-type

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#707

Post by zdw »

jdelfuego wrote: post #679

I find the Amish approach to technology a very interesting one. As I understand it, they're not in principle "against" modern technology, but they carefully evaluate the potential impact of every new technology on the community. The decision is a purposeful one, governed by the criterion of the common good of the community, which in my opinion is much healthy than our free-for-all. In this respect I find this encycli…

A good link on this are what technology different sects allow:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Amish_technology_comp...

Nearly everyone allows the washing machine, which having wrung out laundry by hand when ours broke gave me a whole new respect for folks who do without the tool.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#708

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

Paracompact wrote: post #688
jdelfuego wrote: post #679

I find the Amish approach to technology a very interesting one. As I understand it, they're not in principle "against" modern technology, but they carefully evaluate the potential impact of every new technology on the community. The decision is a purposeful one, governed by the criterion of the common good of the community, which in my opinion is much healthy than our free-for-all. In this respect I find this encycli…

> [The Amish] carefully evaluate the potential impact of every new technology on the community. The decision is a purposeful one, governed by the criterion of the common good of the community. Counterpoint: buttons . Without proclaiming expertise on the subject, I think this is an overly romantic view of the Amish, and most of their decisions (like any religious/religiously-adjacent demographic) are based on vibes an…

Could you explain by what you mean regarding "Counterpoint: buttons"? I wasn't previously aware of how buttons were viewed among the Amish, and all the results I found were varying degrees of "it's complicated", e.g.: https://www.amish365.com/buttons-amish/

And while I would agree that stating "The decision is a purposeful one, governed by the criterion of the common good of the community" may be over-romanticizing it, it does seem to me that the Amish are evaluating the use of buttons according to their core principles. I.e. the whole reason it's a bit complicated is that the Amish universally avoid flashy displays of vanity, and many uses of buttons, especially in the Victorian era, highlighted that, but that plain/simple/hidden buttons aren't that different from hook-and-eye fasteners, which are universally accepted.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#709

Post by jedimastert »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #650

I'm curious if there has ever been an instance where people have been able to "tame" a technology to consider a broader, societal good, or if we've always just been at the whims of how any particular tech naturally concentrates or dissipates power. For example, if you look at the boom of the middle classes in the mid 20th century, this appears to me largely a consequence of the fact that industrial technology at the…

> I'm curious if there has ever been an instance where people have been able to "tame" a technology to consider a broader, societal good, or if we've always just been at the whims of how any particular tech naturally concentrates or dissipates power.

One example that comes to mind is cloning. It's technically fully possible to clone a human right now (as in make an embryo with one person's DNA), but it's wildly taboo.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#710

Post by deanputney »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #676
zb wrote: post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CFC refrigerants are the canonical example.

But I think the action regulating CFCs is kinda what I'm talking about. As a consumer in the US, I don't ever remember having to sacrifice on my refrigerator or A/C - heck, I generally remember those appliances going down a lot in price from the 80s to the early 00s. So my argument is not that we can't regulate technologies, but that we only do so when it becomes "technologically convenient". I think the comparison o…

If you want an example of a sacrifice caused by regulation before technology had fully caught up, banning sperm whale oil in automatic car transmissions comes to mind: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/17/archives/transmission-pro...
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