Re: The Transhuman well

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Nov 02 1997 - 02:46:31 MST


"Berrie" <staring@worldonline.nl> writes:

> What I would like to see develop is an optimistic and easy to read
> scientific correct story about.......well........basically about everything
> :-)

Hard. We have been working on that for a few centuries now, and while
there have been considerable progress it is rather clear we do not
have the whole picture yet.

On the other hand, I think your basic idea is sound. I have tried to
write something like that several times, but usually I diverge into
discussions of evolution and physics. A common transhuman meme is the
idea that we continue a long process of change and evolution, now
adding the new factor intelligence to the equation.

> So to make it a bit clearer. Someone who knows a lot about the DNA,
> will write and introduction to it (the basic concept) and in relation to
> the main text. For a detailed look into the matter, you can click on the
> number in front of the line, were you will find links, opinions, and
> references
> to books, etc........

This sounds almost like en Encyclopedia.

> To kick it off, and get it on the road, I would like to suggest that:
>
> Anders, starts with the intro, the big bang, earth

I'll see if I can dig up something (however, I must warn that I have a
severe time shortage due to my research and teaching).

> Can I post it as .doc ??

Probably best to keep it as text or maybe HTML.

> The Big Bang
> 15.000.000.000 years ago nothing became something...............
> Quantum mechanics
> Cooling process
> Forming the Universe
> Time and Space
> Chaos and order

I think these should be re-ordered a bit; "nothing became something"
is rather vague, I would suggest a more empirical description of a hot
dense state and ignore the question of what was before or put it as a
footnote-web. I'm not sure what came first, time and space or cooling,
since we need entropy to create an arrow of time. Overall, I think
this section can be largely lifted from standard popularizations of
cosmology.

> Earth
> This lucky blue ball had something special =
> ................................
> First life forms and how they came about
> Evolution, Chaos, Bacteria
> Competition
> DNA
> The Apes
> Civilization, Chinese ? Egypt and pyramids
> The 'Information entity' us !
> Social aspects
> Political aspects

I would suggest that we find historical data showing trends in life
expectancy, average length, population size, amount of gathered
information etc. Might form a good illustration.

> The near Future (less...then 100 years)
> Singularity

Shouldn't this be after the computer, nanotech sections. And there are
plenty of other things to mention, like bionics and genetic
engineering.

> Computers, then
> Nanotechnology, then
> Space travel/living, then
> The "information entity" us
> Social aspects=20
> Political aspects
> Cryonics
> We as movement
>
> The far Future (more then 100 years)
> Well.....................

An idea would be to collaborate with Mitch Porter and his sketch of
the future, see his website.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y


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