From: D. den Otter (neosapient@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Aug 30 2000 - 14:34:53 MDT
At 20:38 29-08-00 -0400, you wrote:
> > Exactly, and that's what makes it such a potent symbol. There is IMO
> > no more appropriate symbol for the end of the human (biological) era
> > than the good old skull. It basically says: "one way or the other,
> > biology is finished".
>
>This misses the point in a rather grand way. As Eliezer pointed out,
>we have fear impulses in response to skulls; it triggers our "run
>away" response. The notion of "prevention of harm" becomes foremost
>in our minds. It makes us think "avoid this; avoid this URGENTLY."
It's the Singularity, run for yer lives!! The skull is, above all, a great
attention grabber. Whether or not people will associate it with "danger,
avoid this" when it's *on a T-shirt* depends largely on the rest of your
lay-out (and on how the wearer looks, of course). IMO, anyway. And then
there's also the fact that plenty of people have a morbid fascination for
skulls and related stuff, so it would be something like "Hey check it out,
a skull! Cool! Huhhuhuh!" rather than "avoid this; avoid this URGENTLY."
>You don't want to communicate the notion that "those who view this
>T-shirt should avoid the end of biology," if I understand you
>correctly.
That's right. It *is* a call to action, though. "Danger, get organized now
or DIE".
>You want to communicate the *inevitability* of the end of
>flesh. But a skull necessarily registers an "avoid this" response on
>the part of the viewer. So that's not the one you want.
>
>What may perhaps be a consoling thought to many of us, there IS no
>symbol for the inevitability of death in Western culture. Death
>itself, and dying, has many symbols: the skull, the grave, the coffin,
>the funeral dress; they may suggest inevitability if one is in a
>thoughtful mood and you happen to think that death is inevitable.
>
>But, so far, there is no symbol which, itself, communicates that
>"death will come to you." If there were one, that is the symbol that
>you'd want to put on your T-shirt.
You could try something with the extinction theme; for example, have a
T-shirt with some well-known species of dinosaur and the text "Hodie mihi,
cras tibi". Then below that, or on the other side: "Singularity is coming,
no flesh shall be spared!", and/or Vinge's quote.
There is, on the cover of some SF book I once saw (something by Heinlein,
perhaps?) a picture of a robot who's about to throw an astronaut from a
mountain (he holds the struggling figure high above his head). Very
powerful, could be used for an anti-AI T-shirt.
Or, on a more positive note, just TECHNOLOGY WILL SET YOU FREE, and then
the URL of your choice. Simple, mildly enigmatic and (presumably)
effective. An alternative version could feature an uplifting transhuman
graphic, for example Natasha's _DNA breakout_.
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