From: Brian Phillips (deepbluehalo@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Feb 05 2001 - 06:44:56 MST
Lately I have been thinking about a future without widespread nano. Granted
nano is something I hope for...but there are lots of problems (space travel,
cryonic suspension, genetic engineering etc.) that we could solve without
it. As a bioscience sort of guy I tend to look to the "more-certain"
solution, the IT and engineering types are charging after nano, if it's here
in 30 years..cool. If not..if it turns out to be a 2001 lunar colony....i
prefer to have made other arrangements.
On the cryonics front..neurovitrification is the no-nano-needed tech thus
far. Frankly I like NNN tech. It's cool. It's conceivable. It doesn't
involve waving a nano god-wand all around.
genetic engineering is definitely NNN tech.
Next stop ..NNN borganisms.
Take a single individual, suitable for making a pilot project. Use the
5-years away simple cloning tech to generate a first gen group of say five.
Use third-worlder surrogate mothers to carry the fetal clones. You can
employ any and all en vitro enhancement techniques (the epigentic, "enriched
environment" toys). The best money can buy naturally.
Once your first gen is born it's best to be VERY careful about how much of
what you are doing is public knowledge. Assuming one was in a sufficently
lawless locality other "steps" to ensure the collective come to mind.
A conlang (similar in principle to loglan/Lojban, though aimed towards a
very different outcome) would be absolutely needed as the first native
language of the brood.
You could take advantage of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis (essentially
language shapes cognition), and structure the brood's language in such a way
that the identity barriers were intrinsically blurred. Multiple prounouns
and careful vocabulary selection would be indicated. Inclusion of modalities
of expression such as gesture and sign "phonenemes" would reinforce the
"difference" between the Brood and others. why force kids to make up a
secret language..give it to them. :)
You might encourage the children to think of the other Brood members as
"extensions of themselves" from the earliest months. The ultimate goal here
is "he looks just like me, so he is (essentially) Me". The aims would be a
psychological gestualt, extreme empathy, and the development of
pseudotelepathy (something that seems psychic, even though it's just a
skill). The final angle on this is sortof taboo in modern america..but you
can encourage all sorts of mindsets with the proper pharmaceuticals (another
NNN tech!) Nothing like tripping as a bonding experience. Encouraging the
use of journals and the like to "assist in the aquisition of memories housed
in adjacent neural structures" would be good too. Electronic-journals and
using the Net as a neural crutch are tools for elevating a subculture to a
true "community of like minds". How likely is it that 5+ genetically
identical individuals with IQs in the 140+ range who really think they are
pieces of the same macro-organism, won't "become" what they think they are.
As tech advances you can deploy all new technologies into the "witch's
brew". wearables, interface tech. it's all SO much more effective if you
are already on the "same wavelength" with your clan gen. Naturally, if you
start with a decent set of genes, you can raise genius. Then they work out
the details with the next generation. And so forth. You attain complete
knowledge of a single individual genome and you have the knowledge you need
for the whole family..no wasteful genetic shuffling every generation, no
"regression towards the norm" smoothing out the precious sigmas of deviation
from the general population's intelligence level.
The weird thing about all this is it sounds doable...without waiting for
nano to allow you to upload or download your mind and into a waiting clone
body. I'd much rather meet the Singularity with a half-hundred younger
selves (likely MUCH more intelligent capable selves) at my back. An if the
singularity doesn't get here anytime soon...well I'd rather have myselves
guarding my cryovault, than someone else. At least my clones would have a
sentimental attachment to my ancient ass. You care to take odds on who would
be more likely to devitrify one of us in 200 years... society at large and
8th generation conventional descendants for you ...or a clan of selves who
"know" they are a lifeform that wouldn't exist without you and really want
to talk to you about how it all started? If nothing else...it sounds like
an outstanding cryonics Trust, no?
Nothing about this is really unorthodox, just the way it's put together.
(Sortof like extropy compared to the mainstream eh?).
Anyone care to suggest some angles to incorporate into the scheme?
brian
deepbluehalo@earthlink.net
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