From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Dec 24 2002 - 12:40:24 MST
On Tue, 24 Dec 2002, Greg Burch wrote:
> [* I was 13 in 1970, but had an older brother with whom I tagged along
> into some of the core experiences people associate with "the 60s."...]
Lord, I cannot believe that I'm a year older than Greg Burch
(no offense Greg). It must be that he seems so much more
educated than I (as his speeches and eloquent post demonstrate).
*But* he did miss some essential aspects of the "60s".
The 60s began with the Beatles. It was a "new" kind of music
(though derived from the likes of Elvis and Buddy Holley in the
late '50s.) The peak of the '60s was clearly Woodstock with
people like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead and the Doors
(esp. Jim Morrison) were redefining how we thought about the
central issue of the day (the Vietnam War). The '60s ended
with the "rock opera", esp. Tommy (from The Who) and Jesus
Christ Superstar (Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber), good
hard rock (e.g. Grand Funk Railroad), pop (Three Dog Night)
and was dead when disco (e.g. Saturday Night Fever) arrived.
To view an era, a good window is its music.
> I very much agree with Harvey that transhumanism can claim to be the
> legitimate descendant of much of what was best about "the 60s" -- the
> adventurism, the energy, the ideals of ultimate liberty and exploration.
The basic idea is the same:
"We can do better than this."
The only difference between now and the '60s is that we know what the
technologies are (biotechnology and nanotechnology) that really can
accomplish this. Unlike back in the '60s when we only had nuclear
weapons, missles, primitive integrated circuits and a lot of motivated
people (enough to get us to the moon).
The young people on the list should really study how far we have come.
I haven't looked for the numbers but I suspect the average hand held
computer, perhaps even the average cell phone, has more CPU power than
the Apollo command module.
Why can't we do better than this? (e.g. a pandemic orphaning millions
of children in Africa).
Why?
Robert
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