From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Fri Jun 09 2000 - 14:11:41 MDT
Max More wrote:
>
> At 09:51 AM 6/9/00, Anders wrote:
> >Max More <max@maxmore.com> writes:
> >
> >When I discuss transhumanism in Swedish, I tend to use the word
> >"utveckling" (literally translated it becomes "out-unfolding"), which
> >has the meaning of development, evolution, progress, growth,
> >generation etc. (you can see that Swedish lacks the synonyms of
> >English :-). The nice thing is that it conjures up an image of not a
> >linear progression, but rather something unfolding and developing into
> >many directions at once.
>
> Anders: If you check earlier versions of the Principles, you'll see that
> instead of Perpetual Progress I used to have "Boundless Expansion". A
> number of people didn't like that, thinking that it gaving the impression
> that we wanted to "pave over the universe". "Expansion" or "unfolding"
> (thought the latter I don't like as much) *does* more clearly convey
> multiple paths, or diverse *ways* of making progress. But then how to avoid
> the "paving over" (and perhaps imperialist) connotations of "expansion"?
>
How about 'Infinite Hyper-Diversity'?
However, Robert Bradbury's ideas of dismantling solar systems is probably the
epitome of 'paving over the universe', but this is IMHO more a failing in the
perceptions of others, because there is still the popular connotation that
Expansion = Progress = Development = Sprawl = 'Los Angelization' = Paving Over
the Universe = Very Bad Thing.
While I like many of Robert's ideas on this score, I think that choosing what
can be perceived as a Vogon-type attitude toward other worlds doesn't properly
communicate our true objectives. People are still stuck in ecological mindsets,
so I think that promoting the ideas of making the universe into our gardens and
parks is more positive and reflects our aspirations better. Damien's vision of
this in _The White Abacus_ is very much what I see as the sort of future many of
us want.
Mike Lorrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:29:06 MST