Re: Progress: What does it mean to you?

From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Sun Jun 03 2001 - 01:44:59 MDT


In a message dated 6/3/2001 2:23:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
lcorbin@ricochet.net writes:

<< Have you not hear the Good Word? There is a chance that not
 only death but all suffering will soon be extinguished!
 There arises in the East (actually, to be specific, Atlanta)
 Good Tidings of great joy. Our salvation may be at hand. >>

Reaching for my SKS Rifle::::::

<<So rejoice ye, it **could** be true!

<<Yet even so, reside ye further in darkness as an Unbeliever,
<<know ye that the plight of people improves steadily even
<<without the great S. >>

( I wonder if he is gonna quote from Isaiah 53 or the Book O' Kurzweil?)

<<And to top it all off, it seems most wonderfully probable that
    from the Earth will emerge a Life Burst, and at close to the
    speed of light Life will soon convert the unbelieving dead
    matter everywhere to eternal joy.

    So what's really to despair about? Yes, the frightful
    holocaust continues: 300,000+ people die every day on
    Earth even though cryonics has already been discovered,
    and yes, governments act to prevent the development of
    chemical solutions to the worst problem, and so on, and,
    regrettably, so on and on.

    But we must continue to study the glass as half full,
    not half empty. Be of good cheer. Look at the big
    picture (whenever you possibly can.)

    Lee >>

"Converting unbelieving dead matter into (Yay-eth!) eternal joy" sounds more
like a cross between an Amway convention, and a X-tasy Rave! ;-)

My search (however pitiful and nonsensical and neurotic it is) is trying to
see how dead unbelieving matter, can be converted into the living people and
animals environments that I once knew, including the creature you have been
corresponding with-me. <-----paragraph is kernal of email post :-)

This would help people a whole freaking lot and motivate more to think
long-term about interesting projects, like preserving the biosphere until its
not necessary, and colonize Mars for starters. But it comes down to hope, and
not "hand-waving" hence my insistence that somebody with a degree (barring a
Yudkowsky) spearheads this effort.

Think of it this way. If all I cared about was to look at things with
optimistic denial, then I might as well have spent more time at a sports bar,
watching ESPN, gobbling wings, and guzzling Buds. Not that those are horrid
occupations, but for me, I need the works of the Moravecs and Tipler's, and
frankly, for whatever reason, there seems to be a vast, shortage of such
thinkers and their works. (sigh) Ah well.

Sincerely, if despondantly,
Mitch



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:07:55 MST