In a message dated 10/3/1999 10:37:11 AM EST, jr@shasta.com writes:
<< Indeed, as you say, power may magnify and amplify attributes. But from
whence comes corruption, and why should not humans become transhumans in
proportion as they transcend the corruptible influence of genetics and
carbon-based biology? IOW, genuine transhumanism can mean overcoming the
desire for power, or for anything else. The thoroughly extropic demi-god does
not eat galaxies out of lust for power, but rather out of need for the power
of galaxies to sustain the humble hermitage which contains trillions and
trillions of tranquilly creative transhumans.>>
<<The co-worker who becomes a jerk boss always (secretly) wanted to become a
jerk boss. The seed of power-abuse must already reside in the abuser. Power
only
provides the opportunity for latent attributes to emerge and grow, it does
not
insinuate any value of its own.>>
<<If you had a window into the mind of a sleeping saint, you'd see the dreams
of a
criminal. Culture does not consist in geography. Algebra works the same in
the
East as it does in the West. "Art is Art, water is water, East is East and
West is West. And if you take cranberries and stew them up with applesauce
they
taste more like prunes than rhubarb does... Now you tell me what _you_
know." --Groucho Marx>>
I certainly agree with that first line. In general, I am considered a good person, but I have had plenty of random thoughts that were completely evil. So what makes me still a good person? I choose to claim the good thoughts as my path, and though I embrace the reality that I am capable of evil, I choose to leave those thoughts behind me.
<<Power cannot corrupt anything, because, as Glen pointed out, it only
magnifies
what already exists. What does this say about transhumanists who transcend
desire? It says that only choicelessly aware transhumanists shall discover
the
way to that which abides ineffably. It says that in order to stride amongst
the
stars forever, you will return to the place where you began, and know it for
the
first time. Only stories have beginnings and endings. Reality has no
beginning
and no end. <burp>>>
This has been "Deep Thoughts," with
Glen Finney<g>