From: Evan Reese (evansreese@directvinternet.com)
Date: Sat Apr 27 2002 - 06:57:03 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon Worley" <redbird@rbisland.cx>
Subject: Re: Different View of IA
>
> So, here I am, in the ancestoral environment. I'm amongst a tribe of
> about 150 humans. They live close together and can spy on each other
> fairly easily. While a few can hide a little, human societies work
> because you can't go against society without some consequences, so
> there's always someone sticking his or her nose into someone else's
> business. One day Unk is caught not sharing the chicken he caught.
> Well, everyone knows that Unk's family has gone without meet for a few
> weeks, so they let this pass. A few days later, he catches another
> chicken and again shares none of it. When he does this the third time,
> people are pissed. The solution: beat him. Maybe rape his wife and
> kill one of his children, too. Unk is upset and he fights a few of his
> neighbors and manages to bloody them a little. After that Unk is a good
> human and mostly gets along in society.
>
> Now we take the Way Back Machine into the future (yes, we're going
> negatively backwards):
>
> So, here I am in the year 2015 where nanotech spy technology is
> everywhere. Just yesterday Knu (the great great great ... great
> grandson of Unk--unless of course the village had managed to get his
> wife pregnant that time Unk did not share his chicken) was caught by his
> neighbors cracking the encryption on a DVC (digital video cube) and
> watching every Inspector Clouseau film without paying $5 a minute to the
> MPAA like all other good, god-fearing people do. Since the MPAA doesn't
> know about this, his neighbors kindly decide to inform them. With the
> press of a button, the MPAA sends out nanobots to Knu's home and has it
> liquidated. Literally. Knu, soaking wet and pissed, is still fully
> capable, unlike his long dead relative Unk who was badly bruised and
> only able to throw a punch or two before a fight was over. Using the
> assembler at the nearby Kinko's, Knu builds and sends out some nanobots
> to liquidate this neighbors houses to get revenge. But, as it turns
> out, Knu is not the best programmer, so his nanobots accidently
> liquidate the Earth. The dolphins enjoy all the extra space (now
> they're really thanking humans for all the fish :-P) but humans are dead
> or drowning.
>
> Back in the e-mail I'm writing right now:
>
> So, as we see, humans don't really change, just the technology does.
> Consequently, humans with technology that can destroy the world are very
> dangerous. It's mostly through luck that we have managed not to nuke
> ourselves out of existence or back to the stone age. One day someone
> with nuclear weapons or nanotech or something is going to probably kill
> everything on Earth. For many of us, the push to reach the Singularity
> as quickly as possible is that the longer we wait the more likely it is
> that we'll be caught on Earth when someone decides to blow it up.
Wow! He cites a (probable) past scenario, and then creates a wholly
conjectural future scenario to show that humans do not change. Anybody can
prove anything with that kind of reasoning - making up any future
occurrences one needs to fit the preconclusion.
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