[MD] (MD] Collective intelligence

[Ham Priday]

Micah --

You posed five compromise challenges to Platt, purportedly to demonstrate 
that "compromise doesn't exist.":


> 1. What is the compromise between life and death?
>
> 2. What is the compromise between freedom and slavery?
>
> 3. What is the compromise good and evil?
>
> 4. What is the compromise between Intellectual Quality
> and Biological Quality?
>
> 5. I want a room painted blue, you want it painted red -
> we both hate purple.  What is the compromise?

Funny thing about individuals in a collective society -- life is always a 
compromise.
Morality and justice are compromises.  Personal freedom is a compromise. 
Choosing values is a compromise.  Here are my answers to four of your 
questions.

1. Life is the compromise between two absolutes: birth and death.  It is the 
only compromise over which individuals have no control.

2. Freedom and slavery are relative conditions of life.  No one is 
absolutely free, since society (and nature) prohibits certain actions. 
Growing up in a family, you are expected to abide by the rules of the 
household.  As a citizen of the state, you are required to pay taxes and are 
subject to military conscription.  If you are an employee, you are in 
bondage to the work ethic of your employer.  If you are a marketer, your 
business depends on  subservience to the needs of your customers.  Etc., 
etc.

3. To ensure the "greatest good" for all, morality is the compromise between 
good and evil chosen by most civilized societies.  Guilt or innocence is a 
compromise meted out by a jury of peers.  Government and industry officials 
are elected by popular vote of the citizenry or stockholders, while public 
polls determine the state's moral stand on international issues.

4. (I'll recuse myself from answering this one, inasmuch as I don't presume 
to know what "biological quality" means.)

5. Surely one of the two individuals who express different room color 
preferences is better qualified, by experience or ownership, to make the 
decision.  If my wife, for example, wanted our bedroom to be blue rather 
than red, I would defer to her greater aesthetic sensibility.  (Besides, 
I've learned that compromise is the only way to maintain domestic 
tranquility.)

In conclusion, unless you're isolated on some deserted island, I don't 
understand how you can say that compromise doesn't exist.

Best regards,
Ham