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Article 6725 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: tp0x+@cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Price)
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Subject: Re: _The Turing Option_
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Date: 28 Aug 92 20:29:51 GMT
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In article <1992Aug28.184552.7507@u.washington.edu> mimir@milton.u.washington.edu (Al Billings) writes, flaming my comment on the quotation "the poor
ye have always with you":

> It meant the shyster knew someone was going to kill him for his bullshit
>soon so wanted to enjoy the good life while he could.

Jeez, Al, what a waste of bandwidth. I'm sorry if I gave the impression
I'm a Christian -- I'm not, so you don't have to get all hostile and sneery.
Here's the original point of the thread, which, in your sudden hissy fit,
you seem to have entirely forgotten:

In article <1992Aug28.040259.2038@leela.cs.orst.edu> 
mcbeeb@atlantis.CS.ORST.EDU  (Brian Mcbee) writes:
>As a wise man said about 2000 years ago: "The poor will always be with you".
>
>Unfortunately, the thing that is easiest to do, namely, give money to the
>poor (or whatever charity you wish) doesn't help in the long run.  What
>probably helps most (at least in the third world) is spreading the idea
>of capitalism and a free society.

This is an actual secular problem: short-term vs long-term solutions.
Do we do pure research or do we do applied engineering? Do we educate
or do we subsidize? Do we start working hard for change or do we study
some more, wary of going off half-cocked? Of course we do both -- but
how do we balance them?

I'll suggest again that the quotation "the poor will always be with you"
belongs to an episode in the Gospels when Jesus addressed this particular
problem of balance between short-term and long-term solutions to problems,
or short-term and long-term perspectives on our careers. Forgive me. I'm
in the middle of one of my lucid stages when I imagine that people I
disagree with aren't automatically stupid, and I still might learn something
from them. 

>Wassail,
>Grendel

Tom

******************************************************************************
 Tom Price  |  Obscure Dropout  |  tp0x@cs.cmu.edu  |  Simplicity, simplicity
******************************************************************************


