From: animated silicon love doll (cheshire@velvet.net)
Date: Thu Feb 07 2002 - 19:59:03 MST
2002.02.04 23:18:09, "Emlyn O'regan" <oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au> wrote:
>More seriously, it is either bollocks, which isn't magic, or it really does
>work, which just means it is something we don't properly understand. The
>extropian position might be "Take that bonking off to the lab for
>examination..."
Right. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. One just has
to shift perspective to where we are now, as opposed to where we'd like to be. I'd love to
be able to build anything I pleased out of nanobots in an hour, I even have a vague idea
of how it works. But the specifics are vague enough that it really would seem like magic.
>In that case, God is synonymous with most of human endeavour. Maybe that's
>true, but the term becomes useless, and is problematic because of it's
>connotational loading.
That is exactly what I'm saying. But this is only my own, personal god. Anyone else is free
to have their own - whether it be some omnipotent and omniscient force that created
everything or nothing more than dog backwards is up to them.
>No, it isn't, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, "the posthuman" isn't... it
>is merely speculation. One day there may be posthumans, and then they will
>be us, so hardly greater than us. Secondly, by the time we can be
>posthumans, we will understand the technology, or will come to as we become
>posthuman. That surely would be an amazing journey of discovery, but it
>doesn't involve magic or gods of any kind. Just good 'ole us.
>Please don't deify or mystify the concepts of transhumanism; they cease to
>make any real sense in such a context. The human that recreates itself into
>something new, using only the power of its wits, the material around it, and
>the insights of its dead ancestors, is an incredible vision. Visit a
>library, jump on the net, walk down a crowded city street and experience
>what we do. Hold something plastic in your hand. Then tell me why we would
>need to worship a god.
All of this makes sense in the context of my above statement. And I never said anything
about worshipping gods. Like I said earlier - gods are something to be aspired to, not
worshipped. Never worship. Respect that something is bigger or more powerful than you
(which, in the end, comes down to fear), respect when a reason for respect is given, but
never worship.
cheshire morgan. we all create life, some of us with wombs,
some with smiles, some with patient hands.
we are all gods, if we choose to be.
-kitten.
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