From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Jun 10 2001 - 15:42:27 MDT
On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 11:33:58AM -0400, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> Technically, a democratic nation is born anew with each election, and with term
> limits laws, this is even more pronounced. However, I would take the opposite
> position: that longevity will result in the extended continuation of tyranny far
> longer into the future than would occur with shorter life spans. Part of this is
> the tendency of the old toward conservatism, luddism, geezerism, etc.
Well, that tendency is IMHO not well supported. In fact, I think it is
largely a myth. Also, we are seeing a shift in senior culture these
days with the greys becoming more numerous, healthier and more active.
Even if it was true that they were conservative in the past, it might
not hold in the future. They might of course be rationally self-serving
politically, but that might have pro->H effects too, for example
increased support for life extension.
> > I guess the best way of handling short-lived nations is to avoid putting
> > all egges in one basket. Keep two nationalities at least, and make sure
> > you can move (both economically and psychologically) if the situation
> > gets bad or too unstable.
>
> A good option. Lets continue it further: in a transhuman future, if you don't
> like the present administration, jump in your dewar and leave instructions to be
> thawed when the winds change. All non-terminal corpsicles would count in each
> election as no votes against the current administration. Then eventually you
> might have the electorate taking turns in and out of stasis, which would solve
> the population pressure problem nicely if half the country is frozen at any
> given time... ;)
Let's hope one half doesn't outlaw liquid nitrogen :-)
I think it makes more sense to be up and active rather than frozen. Why
freeze yourself when the other fools elect a prime minister you can't
stand, when you can simply go to your other country? That way you can
react to stupid policies better than as a corpsicle.
If cryonics ever takes off (and before we all turn into posthuman
monoliths as per the Great Plan) it is likely that very few people will
really die: they will be frozen instead, being seriously ill people
until NanoSanta can revive them. We would get a growing population
of not-quite-dead non-voters. This could create an interesting
problem for your scheme.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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