[libre-riscv-dev] useful article on consensus

Hendrik Boom hendrik at topoi.pooq.com
Thu Apr 25 15:01:48 BST 2019


On Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 11:30:07AM +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:

an extremely long post.  I cringe seeing it, recall in that in another message
you complained of carpal tunnel problems.  Please be gentle on yourself, as 
much as possible.  No need to reply if I'm correct about the typo below.

> 
> you see this in films where the bad guy says, "The means justify the
> ends, son"

I think the bad guy says, "The end justifies the means."

> and you know they're using that to justify blowing
> something up that is going to kill 1eN people in order to "save"
> 1e(N^2).  hero steps in, blah blah, all ends well :)
> 
> the reason that there can be no compromises on an ethical goal is that
> the means are *part of the goal*, and "ethical" is defined as "doing
> good for someone whilst doing no harm TO ANYONE".  and it applies one
> HUNDRED percent, NO exceptions.

Sometimes all choices lead to harm, even the option of not acting or not
making a decision.

Then you have to go for least harm.

-- hendrik



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