From: Dan Clemmensen (dgc@cox.rr.com)
Date: Mon Oct 15 2001 - 19:46:12 MDT
Steve Nichols wrote:
>>Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 07:17:01 -0400
>>From: Dan Clemmensen <dgc@cox.rr.com>
>>Subject: Re: Posthuman Politics
>>
>
>>on track for 2006, Elizier appears to think 2008, and most
>>of the "mainstream" projections are in the 2020-2050 range. I
>>get the sense that newer "mainstream" projections are closer,
>>in the 2015-2020 range.
>>
>
> I find the whole Singularity debate on a par with the
> milleniumists and Y2K thing, except it is more of a moveable
> feast so true believers have more squirming room when it fails
> to happen.
OK, what is your projection for human existence in 2020?
>
> Technology itself has taken a mega-knock when the world's
> most technologically advanced nation is bashed by a few men
> armed just with penknifes.
Armed with 757s. This is an extreme example of the power
multiplier that technology gives the individual. It's
scary, but it's not a step backward away from technology.
Rather, and more frighteningly, it's a glimpse of what
happens when technology becomes more accessible to anyone
who really wants it.
>
> My "brand" of post-human philosophy has always stressed
> the priority of the mental over the material .... the world is
> located in experience more than the other way about. Evolution
> is primarily about survival ..... if we can make things better then
> great, but the bottom line is not to endanger our collective and
> individual existence. Delusional systems from the archaic past
> are a direct threat to inhabitants of this planet, and technology
> by itself will not eradicate supernaturalist spouting money-spinning
> institutions such as the Vatican, Mormons, Baptists, Islam &c.
>
You are not human? Your philosophy does not appear to be post-humanist
to me, since humans have been attempting to "transcend" by emphasizing
the mental over the material for thousands of years, without
reproducible success. The difference between the singulatarian
projections and earlier predictions is that the other predictions
are not consistent with any particular trend lines, but depend on
faith. I include the millenialists and the whackier Y2K people in
this category, along with many religious people. Please note that the
non-whacko Y2K folks spent hundreds of millions of dollars finding and
fixing real computer bugs, some of which really could have caused
problems, so Y2K was a real problem.
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