Re: Why do we seek to transcend ourselves?

From: Mike & Donna Deering (deering9@mchsi.com)
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 11:41:58 MDT


Another thing we need to clarify about this drive is the goal. Is it merely intelligence and power? I think we can get an idea of the goal by looking at what we are. We are all familiar with the arguments related to identity and body. If I cut off my hand I am still me, still just as much me as before. I may have less capability in this environment but I am not less me. I think the same can be said of mental appendages, memories. I can remember the address of the house I grew up in but if I forgot I would not have lost any of the real me, just a possession. If I forgot how to get home from work today I would have lost some capability to operate in this environment but not any of my identity. On the other hand if I forgot my abstracted concept of love then I would have lost some of my identity, would be less of the me. I am a network of interrelated abstracted concepts applicable over a broad range of environments. I am information. I can be copied, multiplied, stored, evolved, or fractured. In as much as these concepts are shared by other instantiations I am not an individual. I think the goal is the evolution of these concepts, not strictly limited to intelligence.

Mike.



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