h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This may eventually become a guide entry, but I'll write it here first to see what others think about it.

The fundamental thing that a society needs to prosper is a safe forum in which everybody can safely express any idea that they wish to express, no matter how stupid or malformed. As soon as this forum is in any danger of abridgement, the society will crumble. Let me say that again. The society WILL crumble. If a society is in any danger of even beginning to outlaw saying anything, then the people will be afraid to speak their minds. If a person with a good idea is afraid to express it, then no one will know what would have become of it. That is why censorship, in any shape, form, or fashion, is a bad idea.

Censorship is the outlawing of a way of expression or of a certain idea. If a way of expression is banned, then a person who's idea can only be expressed in that way is stuck with an idea. However, if that idea is expressed, than it could be as revolutionary as sliced bread. And where do you think the idea of sliced bread came from? Probably some lowly baker who thought there was a neater way of eating bread besides breaking it. If that person had no forum to express his or her idea, would we have sandwiches? No. There was a forum for his idea to be expressed in and he or she used it.

Because there are forums for ideas to be expressed in, life has improved immensely for all. From the first tribal circle where a young hunter showed his creation of a long stick with a few fibers tied to each end and used it to "shoot" a modified spear into a nearby animal, on to the royal court in which a great leader was shown his name in marks on a stone tablet, all the way to the Internet of today, good has come from open forums of discussion.

That's not to say that only good can come from this. When an artist-turned-soldier got an open forum to express his idea of a perfect race, millions upon millions died as a result. But think of how many lives have been saved because Louis Pasteur told of his idea of microscopic "germs" that made people sick. Open forums have been responsible for most, if not all good things.

This forum must have its sanctity protected, and this is the responsibility of a police force. Such a force should make sure that the society can safely and freely express all of its ideas.

A forum is not only a place for ideas to be expressed, but also argued. One must be able to tell not only one's idea, but must also be able to tell why his or her idea is worthwhile. On that same note, one must also be able to argue for or against others ideas. One must be able to join with others with the same idea.

Thank you for reading this, and please respond to it. I would like feedback. After all: this is an open forum.

i like what you have written in that it describes the usefulness of a forum and gives examples of what may of began as a forum discussion. in my humble opinion i would also think that maybe a bit be added about how to begin a civilized forum discussion and possibly a few guidelines on how one should be conducted. i do not mean censorship of a forum or anything like that but instead i mean possibly describing how to be involved in a forum discussion in such a way that your point is noted. one can begin or come into an already active forum like a 'bull in a china shop' and even though they may have valid points and ideas the way they go about voicing them could cause them to fall on deaf ears. for this reason i would like to see a bit about proper and productive forum techniques .
AA

Quite a productive idea, AA. I'll try to come up with a few rules. I may have projected that any rules are bad, but I didn't mean to. The only rules needed are really that of courtesy and good manners.

It's a shame mankind has never been able to work in an open forum through pure manners an courtesy!

Forums will always exist. Mankinds' ideas can only be held hostage for a short period of time, then all the unheard ideas bubble to the surface.
Progress may be delayed, but it cannot be stopped! Thats' "human nature"!



NM

Highly true, FSACE, progress, even in the dark ages, marched on.

The closest example of an open forum I know of is the Athenian one, but the drawback of it is that only high members of society could contribute.
Some thing about that forum that was a good idea was that it also served as a marketplace, so that a person could trade ideas for materials. For some reason, the two are rarely linked.

The best part of the market and the forum being closely associated, was that the elite, who could speak in the forum, could steal ideas from the commoners in the market. They may not have gotten credit for their ideas, but their ideas would be exposed, at least!

Now, can we get the US congress to open a market on the steps of the Capitol Building!.......I think it would help us in the US emmensely! (Darn sure couldn't hurt!LOL)

NM

Thinker it is a good article, lots of ideas But the forum that you mention should be anonymous, and even then ideas that buck broad social trends will get short sharp shrift (try saying that the Third Reich produced anything worthwhile and see how quick the Anti-Nazi League are carting you away to their 're-education' camp) - anonyminity is one of the greatest things about the internet - once online you are whoever you want to be, so your ideas have no predujice attached to them due to who you are. If you decide to make this an actual article, you may want to mention the future, how to organise this, how to make the police impartial etc. All in all a good idea Until later......
BCNU - Crescent

Typical American thinking.
The problem with uncensored forums is that they have a habbit of self-destructing, the reason for this is that people are Human and therefore afraid of ridicule from the rest of society and so will instinctively back the "mainstream view". From this fear of "rocking the boat" Dogma is created and pretty soon everyone is so set in their beliefs that any new opinion that comes along is immediatly attacked. The people on the receiving end of these attacks automatically defend their ideas with new vigour even if the criticism is valid. (e.g. creationists) The end is result is that everyone has become too set in their beliefs for a truely open discussion.

A far better approach would be for forums to have a screening system where the bad ideas (e.g. lets try shaving with chainsaws!) are weeded out before entering the main forum.

Typical American thinking.
The problem with uncensored forums is that they have a habbit of self-destructing, the reason for this is that people are Human and therefore afraid of ridicule from the rest of society and so will instinctively back the "mainstream view". From this fear of "rocking the boat" Dogma is created and pretty soon everyone is so set in their beliefs that any new opinion that comes along is immediatly attacked. The people on the receiving end of these attacks automatically defend their ideas with new vigour even if the criticism is valid. (e.g. creationists) The end is result is that everyone has become too set in their beliefs for a truely open discussion.

A far better approach would be for forums to have a screening system where the bad ideas (e.g. lets try shaving with chainsaws!) are weeded out before entering the main forum. Then at least people are more likely to respect other ideas.

(Sorry if several messages have been sent damn internet connection went down when sending)

All ideas need to be aired. The bad ones will die, if in no other way, when some fool tries them.

Whos' to say what is a good idea or a bad idea? If it's never been done, who knows?

NM

as some people I know may say, tru dat! All ideas can have some practical application.

Nobody should have authority to decide which ideas are bad. Someone once told me "Beware the man who denies you access to information, for in his mind, he seeks to control you."

BTW, i had a bright idea that I could post the lyrics to songs on the guide. Any requests?

So true!!!!


What style music?(for the lyrics)

NM

Any style but instrumental, just tell me the name and artist.

"Nobody should have authority to decide which ideas are bad" That is one of the crassest statements I have ever read. If you applied that then all laws would have to abolished (Why shouldn't I have the right to try murder? If I don't try I'll never know if it's a good idea.)
People who have knowledge should have the authority to tell you which ideas are bad e.g scientists. Otherwise you would have people making bad decisions because they didn't understand a complex argument e.g. poor countries choosing communism.

On the subject of song lyrics- nice idea but would you include foriegn language songs and traditional ones or just pop songs?

Hey! It's true; noBODY should have that authority! That means no person, not no group of people. If one person had that authority, then he or she would have ultimate power, and since power corrupts, and corruption is a crime, and crime doesn't pay, he or she would go broke. Then, he or she could tax the beejesus out of the people, and that would be really really bad. If a large enough group of smart people had that authority, then they must be open-minded enough to consider all sides of an idea before making a decision that could have serious ramifications.

In response to the second bit, if the entirety of the population is educated and open minded, then they could decide for themselves wgich ideas are bad.

For that third bit, no foriegn songs, because I probably wouldn't understand them. Traditional songs are OK. The song doesn't have to be popular, just in a language I know: English or Bad English.

Some ideas have already been put forth, and decided on(eg. Murder, robbery, rape,etc.....things harmful to your fellow man).

Established truths are not in jeapordy unless a totalitarian government is in place. With that "backdrop", whatever the government declares as truth, *is*.

In a true forum,unencumbered by bias, truth will rise to the surface, dispite opposition. Simply because *it* is.

NM

As I told another person who read "the forum", the only rules a society should follow are those of courtesy. But, with your permission, I'd like to include what you wrote in my writing when "the Forum" becomes a guide entry.

As I told another person who read "the forum", the only rules a society should follow are those of courtesy. But, with your permission, I'd like to include what you wrote in my writing when "the Forum" becomes a guide entry.

Unfortunately no-one in society is an expert on everything, most people simply aren't qualified (as in with knowledge not PHDs) to make a sensible or appropriate decision about a given field
Example:
Italian Dictator Mussolinie (1935-1944) Decided to take almost complete control of the italian army, to the extent that he even chose which tanks to use. Mussolinie had little military or engineering knowledge and the tank that he chose turned out to be an absolute disaster. In 1941 he ordered the Italian north africa corps to advance on british held Egypt despite criticism from his own generals (The Italian army had few trucks, crap tanks, an utterly inexpierenced air force and no bloody water) The end result was that the British 8th army massacred the Italians and took over 100,000 prisoners. He should have left his Generals to make the decisions.

Moral: Only those with expierence and knowledge in a field should be allowed to make decisions about it. Everybody else should just leave them alone.Ideas should be discussed among those wtith the required expertise then a decision taken. (but the people within that forum should, I agree keep an open mind.)
Sorry about being so long winded

Long winded is one thing, but that could just as easily be called eloquent.