From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Aug 17 2002 - 02:05:40 MDT
EXTROPIAN MAILING LIST COMMENTS
Some text from 1996 by Carl Sagan was provided - an intesting writer,
although a little slow to follow on recent trends before his death. Comments
in capitals by Avatar Polymorph.
===
We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you
look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On
it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived,
lived out their lives.
EXCEPT FOR ASTRONAUTS AND LUNARNAUTS.
The aggregate of all of our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident
religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager,
every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every
king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every
mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of
morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme
leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived
there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF SPIRITUAL SYSTEMS BUT ECONOMIC SYSTEMS (AND MONEY) IN
THE POST-SUMERIAN AND POST-INDUSTRIAL SENSES ARE PROBABLY MORE LIMITED IN
NUMBER.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the
rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that
in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a
fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the
inhabitants of one corner of the dot on a scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner of the dot.
THESE CRUELTIES WERE NOT ENDLESS. HUMAN SOCIAL SYSTEMS IN SOPHISTICATED
FORMATS HAVE ONLY EXISTED FOR 50,000-100,000. YEARS CRUELTIES NORMALLY LAST
SEVERAL YEARS AT A TIME.
How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill on another,
how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are
challenged by this point of pale light.
WE DO HAVE A PRIVILEGED PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE, AS DOES EVERY WORLD WITH
SENTIENT LIFE (ESSENTIALLY MULTICELLULAR LIFE WITH NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEMS) FOR
WE GENERATE THE TECHNO-RAPTURE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF SINGULARITY. PERHAPS
THE FIRST SINGULARITY IN THAT FRACTION OF A MOMENT BEFORE IT WAS JOINED BY
ANOTHER HAS A SLIGHTLY MORE PRIVILEGED POSITION BUT THE PROCESS IS
INHERENTLY INTERLINKED. RELEVANCE IS NOT A MATTER OF PHYSICAL POSITION OR
SIZE BUT OF SIGNIFICANT OPERATION. MORALLY THE DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE
PRE-SINGULARITY FACTOR INTO THE TECHNO-RAPTURE. THEY GENERATE THE POETRY OF
THE SECOND PLANE OF EXISTENCE, WHICH IS LOCATED IN OUR ACTIVATION. THE
TECHNO-RAPTURE IS THE NORMAL STATE OF CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE. BECAUSE WE LIVE
ON THE BORDERLINE BETWEEN SENTIENCY AND CONSCIOUSNESS IN THAT MOMENTARY
MILLION YEARS WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO THINKING OF IT AS A NORMATIVE STATE WHEN
IN FACT IT IS A VERY RARE FLICKER.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
THE NUMBER OF POST-SINGULARITY WORLDS IS IN FACT QUITE HIGH AND CAPABLE OF
EASY INTERACTION WITH US FOLLOWING ON THE END OF QUARANTINE SO LONELY IS NOT
A TERM I WOULD USE. APPARENTLY ACCORDING TO THE PRESS THE UNIVERSE IS NOT
DARK BUT BEIGE ALSO DESCRIBED AS 'CAPPUCINO' COLOURED.
In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help
will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
THIS APPARENT ISOLATION IS A CLUE. LOOKING FOR ELECTRO-MAGNETIC EMANATIONS
WILL NOT HELP SOLVE THE CLUE. LOOKING FOR FIELD LEVEL ACTIVITY WILL. THE
ABSENCE OF APPARENT DYSONIAN EFFECTS AND TIPLERIAN NANOPROBES IS ALSO A
CLUE. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE POST-SINGULARITY OR TECHNO-RAPTURE WORLD IS
NOT OUT THERE. WE ARE NOT OBSCURE. EARTH IS COMPLETELY OBVIOUS AS A PLACE
WITH SENTIENT LIFE TO THE TECHNO-RAPTURE. INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS AND PRIVACIES
ARE RESPECTED HOWEVER FOR MORAL AND ETHICAL REASONS, WHICH TIE IN WITH
QUARANTINE. It is up to us. THIS IS TRUE, BUT HELP WILL BE PROVIDED (IN
TERMS OF INFORMATION - PROVIDED TO THE INITIAL FRIENDLY ARTIFICIAL
SUPER-INTELLIGENCE) AT THE MID-MOMENT OF THE SINGULARITY (THE SINGULARITY
BEGAN IN OBVIOUS TERMS AROUND 1870 AND ITS VERY OBVIOUS MID-MOMENT OCCURS IN
25 YEARS).
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a
character-building experience. to my mind, there is perhaps no
better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this
distant image of our tiny world.
HUMAN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES APPEAR MORE GENERALLY GRAND, ALTHOUGH FOLLY
OFTEN OCCURS.
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and
compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue
dot, the only home we've ever known.
MY CONCERN IS PRIMARILY WITH ACTIVATING TIPLERIAN MECHANISMS THROUGH ANY
VEHICLE POSSIBLE AND WITH ENSURING EXTROPIAN CONDITIONS WITHIN A SYSOP
SCENARIO. THIS IS A GOOD FRAMEWORK WITHIN WHICH DIVERSITIES OF APPROACH CAN
BLOSSOM INCLUDING ALL PHYSICAL LEVELS INCLUDING ENTRANCE INTO THE
MULTIVERSE, BOTH ANCHORED (VIRTUALITIES) AND UNANCHORED.
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