second hand translation (was: [alicebot-aiethics] Interesting Article)

[Noel Bush]

> The Nazis (and for that matter eugenicists 
> all over the world, including here in the USA) thought that 
> because we had the
> *technology* to manage the gene pool (the ability to, for 
> example, find, identify, and exterminate all retarded 
> children) that we *should* do so.

Worth noting is that the German public raised such an outcry against the
program of extermination of mentally handicapped people that the Nazi
regime put a stop to it.  No similar such outcry rose against the
program of extermination of Jews.

I think that people in general are much more prone to accept inequities
and even genocidal crimes perpetrated against cultural or religious
groups than they are willing to accept the inequities of the so-called
"digital divide".  There is a kind of zeal for bringing "technology to
the masses" that is not matched with a zeal for bringing "equality for
the masses".  Many people seem to be more outraged by the fact that
every kid doesn't have a computer than they are by the fact that a kid
may be living in squalor and may face a mountain of obstacles to
obtaining decent employment just because that kid is non-white,
non-WASP, non-Serbian, non-Russian, whatever.  These are certainly more
pressing ethical problems than whether everybody will get to be a
cyborg.