From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 15:11:26 MDT
In a message dated 6/16/00 1:02:41 AM Central Daylight Time,
d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au writes:
> Well, that's a relief. And here I was supposing that I'd drawn attention,
> by analogy, to something deeply worrying about a future where, say,
> nanotech minting provides much of the essentials of life very cheap or
> free, where AI displaces most of the brain-based jobs, and where many
> healthy young people will be stressed by the lack of extrinsic meaning in
> their otherwise comfortable lives.
I see the point of your question, Damien, but many on the List here may have
a hard time grasping the issue on an emotional level, because I think most of
us can't imagine the situation you describe as being anything but liberating:
We don't have nearly enough time or resources to do the things we want to do.
Not HAVING to work at a job to meet our basic physical needs and having our
basic health and longevity something we could take for granted would only be
a good thing, right? Or so most of us probably feel. I think your point is
well taken, Damien, that many people might not share that reaction and we
might begin to question it as well, after a few thousand years in paradise.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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