From: Dirk Bruere (dirk.bruere@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 07 2006 - 05:15:24 MST
On 3/7/06, micah glasser <micahglasser@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This list is not too friendly with regards to the subjects of religion or
> politics either from what I can tell. Basically if the subject matter does
> not in some way directly pertain to SL4 technology the discussion will
> likely be cut off. I, however, enjoy such subjects and wouldn't mind having
> a good discussion or debate if its something I'm interested in.
>
Ultimately I believe that getting to the Singularity is going to involve
massive manipulation of political and religious memetic structures.
Technology is a necessary, but not sufficient condition. At some point,
probably within the next ten years, all of what we have been discussing is
going to become mainstream instead of residing in what most people would
regard as a SciFi ghetto populated by harmless nerds. How it becomes
mainstream is what should be a major concern, since there is a real
possibility of a widespread perception that Transhumanism is a dangerous
pseudo-religious cult. [BTW, that's what got me thown off Natasha's toy]
Having said that, while there will undoubtedly be major opposition from the
NeoLuddites I think it is quite possible to at least bolster our side with
substantial numbers who are not merely apathetic but enthusiastic
supporters. IMO these people will *not* come from the scitech community but
from amongst several existing factions of the general community. One major
source will be those subsumed under the NewAge heading. Now I know it's
fashionable to mock them and despise their ignorance of science etc but that
would be a mistake. For these people, who are a quite substantial slice of
the population in the West, recasting Transhumanism into a
religious/spiritual form or forms will be very effective in gaining us much
needed allies.
On the political side of things we must thank the Gods that China exists and
the world is *not* run by an American Empire under Bush and his religious
zealot cronies. Political paranoia should be sufficient to ensure no global
suppression of crucial technology takes place. At the very least a critical
political focus should be setting up Transhumanist orgs in China and
encouraging the Chinese government to embrace Transhumanist aims, at least
to the extent of not toeing the US line on 'worldwide bans'. In a perfect
world the Chinese govt would publicly embrace a Transhumanist agenda in both
social policy and R&D. That would ensure the tech arrived unimpeded.
Dirk
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:56 MDT