From: adrian_karth_at_netconnect@smtpgate.netcon.co.za
Date: Sat Sep 06 1997 - 01:35:10 MDT
Message is undeliverable.
Reason: Unable to access cc:Mail Post office.
Please retry later.
Original text follows:
---------------------
Received: from maxwell.lucifer.com by smtpgate.netcon.co.za (ccMail Link to SMTP R6.0)
; Fri, 05 Sep 97 23:34:56 +0200
Return-Path: <postmaster@extropy.org>
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by maxwell.lucifer.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id NAA01339 for extropians-outgoing; Fri, 5 Sep 1997 13:23:30 -0600
X-Authentication-Warning: maxwell.lucifer.com: majordom set sender to postmaster@extropy.org using -f
Message-Id: <199709051923.MAA08227@idiom.com>
X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3
To: extropians@extropy.org
From: Eric Watt Forste <arkuat@pobox.com>
Organization: Pink Goo
Subject: Re: Goo prophylaxis:consensus
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 04 Sep 1997 21:11:20 PDT."
<199709050411.VAA04072@crypt.hfinney.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 12:23:17 -0700
Sender: postmaster@extropy.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
> The question remains, is this kind of information really likely to
> be important? I can't imagine a plausible situation in which an
> entity with the kinds of powers that nanotech confers is going to
> find itself needing access to information from its biological past.
> This may be a failure of imagination on my part though. What kinds
> of things could you see happening where it would need this information?
Well, I don't think I'm going to remain interested in nothing more
than accumulating capital forever. One interesting challenge that
looks like I could work on it for many centuries, at least, is
self-transformation, self-improvement. The more I know about all
the legacy code embedded in my genes and my chordate nervous system,
the better able I'll be to modify (and I hope improve) it. Because
this stuff is the product of an evolutionary process, it is shaped
("written") by the history of the selection pressures that affected
my ancestors and that affected the people who shaped my culture.
I don't know enough about my legacy code yet to know exactly
which information about the history of the selection pressures
that shaped me is going to turn out to be most handy in my
future self-creation projects. So to the extent that I'm
serious about this grandiose talk, I'm wary of cutting loose
with the dance of Shiva on the delete key.
Besides, one of my favorite Unix jokes is "Those without
history are condemned to retype it." ;)
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ expectation foils perception -pcd
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:48 MST