> Sometimes I feel as if there is a bit of undercurrent here at
> times that might be expressed (if given voice) as "The world and
> all its problems can go hang as long as I survive and the
> technology moves along fast enough and is accessible enough that
> I can continue to survive and progress personally." This
> undercurrent, to the extent it is accurate, can lead to rather
> glib responses to some types of problems imho. And I agree that
> such do us no good. I will go further and say that I think many
> of them and of this "me-centric" attitude are great dangers to
> our fondest hopes.
Now, now. I consider the hang the world provided methodology an excellent
one to follow. It stops potentially long-lived people from focusing on and
spending energy on things that really don't matter in the long term. That
the tech goes fast enough and is accessible enough specifies a society that
I wouldn't mind living in. To get to immortality is an all or nothing
proposition for the species -- either everyone goes, or no-one goes. It
requires a stable, energetic, open, progressive society to most efficiently
a) produce the necessary sort of research and b) distribute the results.
For me it all comes back to the problems being, in order of importance:
1) solve the aging problem
2) solve everything else
Doing it any other way, or getting sidetracked at all, is just silly and a
waste of resources. Solve 1) and you're set. You have all the time in the
world.
I'd consider that a large proportion of the damage being done by governments
today is done because career politicians (who constant have to find
something, anything to do to show that they are useful) focus energies on
things that just don't really matter.
Governments should be small entities populated by conscripted people,
compensated at a modest rate, who must personally spend the time to gather
the resources required to enact any measure, and are permitted to carry on
with a day job. That should keep things nicely balanced. Everything that
they can't do or won't do is in the field of the private citizens
organizations, where it should be. But of course, it would take a revolution
to get that sensible state of affairs going anywhere on this planet anytime
soon.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:29 MDT