In a message dated 6/20/00 11:00:20 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
altamira@ecpi.com writes:
<< Kaczynski certainly seems to want an end to all but the most primitive
technologies. I didn't get the impression from Joy's paper that he's
anywhere nearly so radical. I would think that an end to progress would be
easier to acheive without widespread violence than destroying existing
technology. If you outlaw certain kinds of research, you only have to exert
violence or the threat of violence against the small part of the population
that would have been engaged in the research. The outlawing of gold as money
involved force or threat of force against an entire population.
Bonnie >>
I take Joy's 'declaration' as a kind of social conscience positioning
statement to get into the news and to display that the cold cruel corporate
world of Oracle really cares. One thing those of the list neglect is that we
are currently nowhere near the singularity so hopefully anticipated by the
worthies on are Extropian. Its insubstantial in the sense that its certainly
not immediate, its more in the regime of what might the International Space
Society do to promote a Mars colony, or how might we best adapt to a changing
climate at the end of the 21st century--important, but not instant. If I
recall, the Japanesehad the musket in the 16th century and gave it up because
it effected the social order used by peasent or member of the daimyo
(Japanese house of Lords). Technology will be used till it blows up in our
faces and then we'll restrict. Seems like history in action to me.
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