Re: Singularity and the general public

From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Sun Apr 08 2001 - 23:36:20 MDT


At 10:45 PM -0600 4/8/01, Justin Corwin wrote:
>if we're going to divide into elite and herd, here, we better be
>sure the divisions are right. i consider myself pretty knowledgable
>about sl3+ matters, i like sci fi, i like science, i've read OMNI
>and discover all my life. (till discover shut down omni, curse
>them). but as far as

I didn't read OMNI when it was in circulation (and not too
surprising, since I doubt I was old enough to even begin to
comprehend some of the stuff in there by the time it was cancled,
though maybe I've got the timeline wrong), but I, by chance, fell
upon a few free copies a few years back. Anyway, it was old stuff
from the late 80s and a lot of it, in hind sight, was overestimating
the short term futurism. Anyway, in there were the occasion short
blurb about something that, now, has shown itself to be really
important. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we need an OMNI
again to get the general public excited and sneak in the important
stuff, even if just by accident, so that we will have a group of
people who will cheerlead the Singularity, even if they can't really
do much serious thinking about it. These people aren't interesting
now, but would be useful when we have to face the 'masses' and deal
with any fanatically negative reactions (I doubt that this will
happen in America, where the public has become wiser about advances
in technology than in other countries (I make this statement not
without having thought about it, but backing it up is an essay that I
am still working on), but other places are less likely to accept the
Singularity as easily).

Maybe the best way to do it is with a Web site, since it has wider
exposure than TV and magazines (well, at least to the audience that
were after). I know, let's take over Slashdot's Jon Katz and use him
to start spreading the approriate memes. And, it's not like we'll
get a negative reaction to the Singularity, since everyone will be
too busy flaming Katz. ;-D

-- 
Gordon Worley
http://www.rbisland.cx/
mailto:redbird@rbisland.cx
PGP Fingerprint:  C462 FA84 B811 3501 9010  20D2 6EF3 77F7 BBD3 B003


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:36 MDT