From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Mon Mar 11 2002 - 16:12:43 MST
From: Spudboy100@aol.com, Sun, 10 Mar 2002
<<I don't know what was in Lucas' subconscious mind when he wrote
_Star Wars_, but consciously Lucas was strongly influenced by mythic
symbols. (Also, Joseph Campbell was George Lucas' good friend)
Amara>>
>Now I choose to ask whether the mythic themes will endure, if some of our
>transhuman goals arrive?
YES.
>In a book by astronomer, Michael Hart; The Most
>Influencial People of History (looking back from the year 3000) human
>viewpoints have changed.
If you write a list of what comprises a human life, then you will see
the place for the mythic symbols: in humans' past, in humans'
present, and in transhumans' lives too (assuming that a transhuman
is a sentient life).
What comprises a human life? All of those exciting or boring
directed activities: As long as humans have growing phases
(childhoods, teen, adult years), create offspring, seek forms of
nourishment, make friends, form love partnerships, break love
partnerships, make goals and seek fulfilling work, become bored of
their work, find new fulfilling work, form large and small
communities, get into disagreements, place their roots somewhere
else, lose friends/family, take care of their family/offspring/communities,
then mythic symbols have an important place. These activities result
from a basic set of values and have been part of humans' life since
we were human. I don't see them changing very much in transhumans, do you?
I can think of several reasons why mythic symbols might be
more important for transhumans:
* Parents/Grandparents(or other family)/Communities might not be
(as) readily available. The myths can provide templates to teach and
support a particular transhuman through rites of passage,
'difficult' times, facilitating a big dream.
* With long lives, our work/play/family arena will be larger and
longer, so it is even more important to pay attention to one's inner
voice and follow our inner voices. The myths provide templates to
stay true to ourselves.
* Communities/families are likely to be more dispersed in space and
time, lending to a situation where transhumans need psychological
linkages. (This assumes that transhumans would feel lonely if they
have little or no contact with other transhumans). The mythic symbols
provide psychological linkages too.
Amara
-- *********************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ *********************************************************************** "If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." - -Nietzsche
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:55 MST