Re: High Technology of the Future

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Dec 24 2000 - 16:36:12 MST


"Gamma Pi" <gammapi@newsguy.com> writes:

> > >At the same time, people's lives are not so different from hundreds of
> > >years ago, except many more people have automobiles, high technology
> > >appliances and devices, and medicine, as well as entertainment.
>
> I would agree that people's lives are not so different IN A FUNDAMENTAL
> SENSE from hundreds of years ago. Fundamental problems remain the same and
> fundamental patterns of solution also.

I wonder. What about family structure? We have shifted from the
agrarian multigenerational family/clan to a much looser structure,
often just the single mother with single child. Would that count as a
fundamental change?

Another issue is mortality. We have definitely moved from the "life is
cheap" view that was common in the past when it was expected that a
few of your children would die shortly after birth, and the death of
family members in illness or violence was a fairly common occurence to
a situation were deaths are rare but highly emotionally charged.

Neither of these changes are of course on par with people xoxing or
becoming immortal, but I would argue they have had quite fundamental
effects on society, culture and the idea of the human condition.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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