From: Damien Raphael (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2002 - 21:00:49 MST
On Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 05:47:25PM -0900, John Grigg wrote:
> So I can fully understand how some people are worth billions due to a
> combination of hard work, education, brilliance, and political
> connections, while another person is poor through a combination of not
And George W. Bush's money comes from what brilliance and hard work?
> What DOES bother me is that people(in both the first and third world)
> can work hard to provide for themselves and their families, and yet
> still not have enough for adequate nutrition, shelter medical care,
> and education. Some people may say that is just how life is, and that
> it's their own tough luck. But I just can't look at it that way. I
> think one reason for the transhumanist desire for a singularity, is to
> see every human being well cared for.
And the left says "why wait for a Singularity? We can care for people
_now_."
Compared to most of agricultural history the Singularity has already
happened. Used to be most people worked their butts off just to grow
food, and a small elite skimmed the surplus. Now 3% or less of the US
population works directly producing food (although more may be building
tractors, obtaining fuel, driving trucks around) and a lot of the
population is doing weird abstract 'work' subsistence farmers wouldn't
think of. The poor are obese instead of starving, clothing is cheap,
housing is cheap, life expectancies are at record highs...
You want a Singularity? Wotcha waiting for? Sure, there's more work to
be done. But if you want to reduce pain and fight the unfairness of the
universe, there's plenty of slack to start now.
(Concrete example: we're about to spend $7 billion on missile defense.
That could buy lots of vaccines for Africa, or DDT-treated mosquito
netting to fight malaria, or clean water...)
-xx- Damien X-)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:10 MST