From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Thu Feb 03 2000 - 06:20:01 MST
It appears as if Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org> wrote:
|
|He opined that popular predictions of the apocalypse, the Rapture, the
|End of the World, tend to peter out after 2000. In fact, there are no
|religious -- presumably he meant Christian -- predictions of the end of
|the world with deadlines after 2012.
Apocalypsies come and go.
The Western religion nuts simply showed that they had no clue, just as
the Eastern religion nuts.
I think your friend subscribes to optimism. I see no reason to assume
that stupidity will lessen in the new millenium. According to some old
saying, even the gods themselves lose against stupidity. Stupidity just
re-groups.
|Yes, this ignores the Singularity, McKenna's wibblings, and related non-
|religious apocalypses. But the point that interests me is that if the
|Christians stop jumping up and down shrieking "the sky is falling!"
|because they're run out of messianic deadlines, politics and cultural
|life will take an interesting turn.
It simply ignores all the scientifically oriented religions, then. Like us. !-P
[How long will it take for extropianism and transhumanism to become religions?]
+ (Which of Ronald Reagan's advisors
|on public policy was it who advised cutting the EPA's budget because
|because the Rapture was due to carry all the good guys away long before
|the environment could be damaged irreparably?)
I presume the advisor took the comet, and thus have left us..
|I'd like to segue this into a discussion of the ethics of immortality,
|but all my tired brain will come up with right now is the idea that when
|a society stops anticipating its imminent demise and is forced to raise
|its eyes and contemplate a vista of centuries stretching into its future,
|the change of perspective is going to have _interesting_ effects ...
Yes, ethanol users experience tired brains as part of their trip. !-/
|Anyone got any ideas?
Maybe the mighty ``Millenium Blues'' appears?
"Hey! It's 3rd millenium already! Nothing has changed. Sob...
We might just as well <whatever>..."
If humans can expect to not die, then would not killing them become more
unethical than before? Expect a guerilla group to form, which wants to
kill off those who use anti-ageing techniques.
Maybe we can expect U.S. courts to punish with 1375 years imprisonment, as
the culprits now could actually survive the term. !-/ Or will anti-ageing
drugs become illegal to use for people in U.S. prisons?
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