From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue May 29 2001 - 12:09:40 MDT
Natasha Vita-More wrote,
> I think we will look back on humans and early transhumans (most of us) as
> have a mental/emotional disease. Whether this disease is as strong and
> certain types of severe schizomanic, to more mild boarder line personality
> and depression, to even lighter degrees of insecurity, fear, jealousy, to
> bad mood, irritability, etc.
It's the monkey DNA, I'm afraid. It's embedded in every system. It will
take decades to purge it.
Will people want to suppress their sexuality even when it becomes obsolete?
Sex is too much fun. Will people want to suppress their anger? Or will
they always feel justified when they are angry? Would people want to remove
their fear of death? Would that make suicide or apathy too easy?
It may be that we discover that necessity is the mother of invention, and
that only tortured souls strive to produce art, seek news worlds to explore,
or fight for our own space. I do want to purge myself of the monkey-DNA,
because it controls so much of my behavior. But I may find that it also
controls my goals, and that without my neurosis, my love of life, quest for
knowledge, or abhorrence of the mundane may also be cured.
Just a possibility to keep in mind.
> I don't think it an insult to say the above, but a matter of common sense.
> Even though we try our best to claim intelligence above all, the bare bone
> truth is that humans are still entangled by fears.
It was my fear of death that got me signed up for cryonics and onto a
life-extension diet. It was my fear of loneliness that got me to seek out
my partner. It was my fear of bad politicians that got me to start paying
attention to politics. It was my fear of poverty that got me to start my
own business.
I know it is a design flaw, but I find that:
When I have it good, I enjoy the good life, but when I have it bad, I
struggle to make things better!
-- Harvey Newstrom <http://HarveyNewstrom.com> <http://Newstaff.com>
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