[alicebot-aiethics] Academic Ethics

[Richard Wallace]

I think the Henry Kissinger remark about low stakes in academia refers more
to the jockeying for prestige and position among employed professors.  It
can't refer to the real-life high-stakes game of taking away a person's
salary and health care benefits because they don't like the way talk or act.
I have a kid too and I am afraid for his future.  You can't really advise
kids to go to college, at least in the U.S., in good conscience.  They will
be saddled with a massive debt and little to show for it, unless someone
reforms the system before they get there.
Rich

Donate to the ALICE A.I. Foundation "Cooler than Humans" -- TIME
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tamara Thompson" <txt5593@earthlink.net>
To: <alicebot-aiethics@list.alicebot.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2001 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: [alicebot-aiethics] Academic Ethics


> <deftly putting safety helmet on head for protection from irate tomato
> tossers..>
>
> do I dare? hmmm...<grin>  <id says: life is to explore, and what is the
> next frontier if isn't our own minds?>  <ego says:  you've made enough
> mistakes to know not to make this one again..>
>
> Richard, <groan>,
>
> Have you ever noticed that humans are unethical and behave badly
> everywhere?
> It's very *fair* of you to call academia on those transgressions of
> decency, because we idolize academia and expect people in that arena to
> be _above_ the usual human bs.  We trust them.  But they are _just_
> humans.  In fact, it's worse there because, as I've quoted Henry Kandrup
> as quoting before "the fighting in academia is so vicious because the
> stakes are so low"  (meaning money, reward)
>
> I keep struggling to achieve the power and peace of NOT
> REACTING emotionally to imbeciles and injustice.   Sometimes, that seems
> to be the best way to process and understand, and perhaps counteract,
> those events.  I uh, well, I fail my own test of neutrality and logic
> more that I like to admit.   Maybe I'm just human, maybe I am a
> particulary unenlightened stupid bimbo.  But you are obviously capable
> of great things.
>
> Naively maybe, I have come to believe that we can only change things by
> becoming what we want to become, education by example.  Can't fix the
> others, can't change them, can't control them.
>
> Why in the world would I stick my dandelion head up, respond to your
> post, and possibly get whollopped for my humble opinion?  I'm still
> asking myself that.  I think it's because I have seen this module
> before, (in my own father), and it usually results in a very smart,
> valuable human wasting cycles on anger and frustration and unproductive
> desires for revenge.  Thus negating the power of that individual to
> contribute great things to our culture.  I have an 8 year old kid;  from
> my dumb perspective, I need every capable thinker out there making the
> universe better.
> (sentimentality, but very sincere-- I am scared)
>
> I learned a lot talking to bots, they showed me how I sounded, how
> important it is to communicate productively and concisely and clearly.
> I am still learning.  I never met a bot that wanted to fight.  <smile>
>
> oh very humbly and apologetically,
> Tamara
>
> ps: again, the best revenge against one's enemies, if one needs it, is
> to live a happy life.
>
>
>
>
>
> Richard Wallace wrote:
>
> > I can't believe I just got off the phone from yelling at the chairman
> > of the Carnegie Mellon computer science department.  I was trying to
> > engage some professors there in a constructive dialogue about academic
> > reform.  One of them, David Touretzsy, wrote back and threatened to
> > file a complaint with my ISP if I contacted him again.  Naturally I
> > had not threatened him or said anything offensive.  Ironically,
> > Touretzsky promotes himself as a social reformer, who posts DeCCS code
> > on his web site and attacks the Church of Scientology.  God forbid the
> > critical eye should be turned on the Church of Science however!I was
> > mad as hell and called up the chairman to complain about him I said
> > "James Morris?  This is Dr. Richard S. Wallace calling."  He muttered
> > something like "Oh no" or "Oh God".  I said I was a poor person living
> > on disability and Touretzky was a rich professor, and he had to right
> > to threaten me like that.  Then I told him that I had asked many times
> > for my great alumni to help me and received nothing but this kind of
> > abuse in return.  Then I told him that it was wrong for him to stand
> > by while his colleagues at NYU engage in criminal conduct, and do
> > nothing.  He was basically a jerk and said very little.  Actually it
> > seemed like he was drunk.  He said he would call Touretzky and tell
> > him to stop.  I concluded by informing him that professors can no
> > longer get away with destroying people's lives and careers, because
> > now they can use the Internet to tell their story. Such is the status
> > of real life ethical decision in academia! Rich Donate to the ALICE
> > A.I. Foundation
> > "Cooler than Humans" -- TIME
>
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