From: Dehede011@aol.com
Date: Mon Sep 30 2002 - 09:03:28 MDT
Robert,
First, I was feeling a bit testy when I wrote the email you are
answering. Let me apologize for that before proceeding.
You seem to be dealing with two issues at once:
1. The existence of race as a scientific fact. Personally, that is almost a
nonstarter. If we have a definition of four races that we can more or less
agree upon then it is certain that we have more shadings between those four
basic races than I can keep up with -- you sound like you can't keep them
straight either. For one homely example. I am part Cherokee. Is that the
Red Race? Well, could you explain the difference between the two major
branches of the American Indians that split sometime prior to their entry
into the Americas? We, the major branch of American Indians, are said to
trace back to Mongolia. Does that make us a truly separate race or are we
part of the East Asian people? BTW, those are rhetorical questions only.
2. The Bell Curve, in the opinion of many of us that have read the book, is
a major work on a social trend that got underway in about 1900. At that time
our economy became sufficiently high tech that society began to segregate
itself along IQ lines. The authors report some of the consequences of that
change in nature of our economy.
You can imagine our chagrin when people that have never read the book
go haring off on what we that have read the book regard as a phony issue.
Then when we find those people have not read the book but have read the
report of some 3rd party we become increasingly frustrated.
I think this is an important issue for extropians. Let me briefly
review what I see going on and do so against the backdrop of our expecting
the Singularity. We have TBC discussing the consequences to society for our
economy going high tech. They describe it, IMHO, as a major change. McGee
is saying that a new Renaissance has begun. And in the latest Atlantic I am
reading an article that is predicting a major, world wide, revolution in
Christianity that will have major effect on world wide society.
I believe that any one or all of those issues could have a major
effect on how we approach the Singularity. But I am not hearing those issues
discussed in terms of the Singularity.
Ron h.
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