From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Mon Mar 01 1999 - 07:38:01 MST
arnaldo wrote:
> >
> > Isn't this in a sense the theory of the Unified Field that Einestein
> > spent the rest of his years looking for? The unity of the big and small?
> >
> > Tell me what all of you think about this...
The unified theory he was looking for is in fact in string theory, more
recently known as 'M' theory.
>
> > >>
> >Adrian wrote:
> > Sounds like God to me, Arnaldo.
> >
> > Adrian
>
> Well, everythig sounds like god to you... but which one? There are more
> than 2000!!! Each one of them is good because explains everything to us
> without having to make us THINK.... He or She created the Universe, created
> us, kills us to have room for more people... explains everything.... god is
> soooo cool.....
Yes, Adrian, you must understand that to many or most people on this list, the
word 'god' is a null set or else triggers very negative memes. Most of the
highly intelligent people here on the list are rather tired of the old, worn
out, childish schoolyard bully gods, as well as the simple-minded 'don't worry,
be happy' gods. While creating a more 'spiritual' means of communicating and
understanding transhumanism and extropy is laudable, referring to future
transhumans as 'gods' is, in my mind, more of a hindrance than a help,
specifically because of all of the emotional and memetic baggage that the word
already posesses.
This is why Vinge's term of a Power seems more appropriate, though it may still
have connotations with the nation-state use of the term Power and Super-Power.
Just calling them transhumans, and eventually post-humans, brings such entities
down to a singular, everyday level that individual humans can relate to, and
the terms are sufficiently new that they don't carry any memetic baggage.
Finally, if we are all to attain god-like capability, then such capability at
that time will be considered to be merely human capability by those people. It
will only be seen as fantastic and extraordinary by those who insist on being
left in a primitive state. We should not orient our view of such a world from
the primitive perspective, if we are to become the new gods...as transhumans.
The need for a theology of ourselves would only be useful, in my mind, if we
wished the remaining primitives to worship us.....which I don't have a need
for. Do you?
Mike Lorrey
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