From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 08:55:43 MDT
hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> Bradley Felton writes:
> > The mindset that enables one to separate themselves from the herd offers
> > more than just the ability to defend against an inter-species attack: when
> > the lemmings march over the cliff, it's the socially disconnected who
> > survive. That both strategies persist in nature (and in man) suggests that
> > each have offered their share of success in the past, but the changes in
> > our environment that we foresee in the near future could easily tip the
> > balance heavily one way or the other. Whether the balance will tip, and
> > which way: I haven't a clue--but for many of us the wager has long since
> > been laid (in my case, I suspect it was at my conception...).
>
> That's an interesting point. I would point to the increasing
> inter-dependence of members of society as our world becomes
> more complex, on the other side. Robin Hanson's article,
> http://hanson.gmu.edu/dreamautarky.html, discusses the seeming paradox
> that Extropians dream of a more individualistic society while we have
> historically moved in the opposite direction.
>
> The division of labor, trade, and specialization has been the foundation
> of technological progress. If each person had to do everything for
> himself, we'd still be in the stone age. My bet is that the man who can
> work smoothly with his fellows is the one who has the survival advantage.
In many ways, I would say that today we are more free in many ways than we were
50-80 years ago, although in a few key respects we are less free. Civil Rights
and womens lib has certainly improved the lot of their constituents, no doubt
about it, while the internet has created a supernova increase in the amount of
free expression occuring. However the maximum liberty that any individual may
potentially have is less today than before. Many states do not allow the
individual the ability or right to defend themselves, or their families or
property adequately, while confiscatory tax and drug policies are also quite
onerous.
Economic interdependence in terms of skills does not necessarily demand
political inter-dependence or financial interdependence, however. The only areas
where liberty is really decreasing are a result not of increasing
specialization, but of increasing heritability in stratification.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:31:11 MST