Re: E.S.P. in the Turing Test

From: Al Billings (memoria@memoria.com)
Date: Wed Aug 30 2000 - 15:49:09 MDT


Eli wrote:

> And have you made your mark upon the world? Done anything, anything at all,
> to make the world a better place for everyone, not just yourself or your
> immediate circle?
>
> Speaking as a Research Fellow of the Singularity Institute, and one whose
life
> is devoted to creating the Singularity today-not-tomorrow, it always strikes
> me as unimaginably preposterous when people react to the concept of the
> Singularity by thinking that they've got it made and all they need to do is
> wait - but your own attitude is even worse. Best of all is to try to
achieve
> your dreams, but even fatalistic and useless dreams are better than no
dreams
> at all. They can be kicked awake if their dream is threatened. You're dead
> to the world.

 There is no point in talking about my work towards my dreams. It would be
dismissed as mystical rubbish by the masses here. The reason that I never
joined ExI years ago still stands and that is the dogmatic embrace of atheism
and the ridicule of any sense of spirituality in others by its members.

 I am well aware of current scientific research in a number of fields. I read
far and wide. I work in the computer industry and keep up on the technical
aspect of things. I study philosophy, especially classical. I am not some
unthinking airhead but any admittance of spirituality will immediately have me
lumped in with the most idiotic of creationists. Dogma, in anyone, is silly.

 Al

 --
 Al Billings -- <memoria@memoria.com> -- http://www.memoria.com

 "We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal
 nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your
 own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer."
                                                 -- Pico della Mirandola



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