Re: Yeah, guns and guns and guns and guns

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Fri, 28 May 1999 16:33:43 -0700 (PDT)

Lee Daniel Crocker writes:

> Life without politics isn't possible. Politics will dictate which
> technologies will be deveoped and what we will be able to do with them.

I think the importance of politics in a world of individua of all complexity, expanding outwards hard on the heels of the light cone will be less important than today. Both because they are not monodisperse, and because of communication lag. Perhaps ecology and evolutionary biology will be more applicable.

I don't have a definite position towards guns. It's just that guns are relatively low-tech (is there legislation against possession of ABC weapons by individuals?), yet never fail to provoke heated debates which never came to any consensus. Being fruitless, they'd be better kept off-list.

> Those who abdicate their responsibility to engage in politics will
> find themselves at the mercy of those who do not. Fortunately, some
> of us are on the side of the future.

Will there be politics after the Singularity?