From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Mar 04 1999 - 12:30:33 MST
Delvieron@aol.com writes:
> Tim, Anders, and other >H,
>
> I would like to second the idea of not getting trapped in the Us vs. Them
> meme. I think it is important to remember that the general public is not the
> enemy, they are our families, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and us. We need
> to be able to reach out to those who have not discovered >H, help them to
> understand why we believe what we do, and try to understand what their
> concerns and misgivings are.
Exactly. One of my favorite adages (borrowed from Robert Ingdahl) is
"The battle for the future will be settled during the coffee-breaks!"
- never underestimate the power of spreading memes into everyday
consciousness. And as you point out, we better learn about the
misgivings and give them a thought.
> Remember, even a current enemy can be a future
> ally, so let's neither demonize nor denigrate those who are not yet >H, and
> darn well not let anyone demonize or denigrate >H.
It is a bit like a memetic prisoners' dilemma: we can defect or
cooperate with other memes. And of course, >H is a rather borad stream
of thought, so we might quite well end up on very different sides in
some issues - which is really good as long as it doesn't hinder us
from developing.
> Because of our personality types, those of us currently involved in
> transhumanism will probably always be somewhere out on the cutting edge of
> thought, but if we honestly believe that we are heading in the right
> direction, then it would be a good idea to make sure that the rest of humanity
> knows where we're going so they can follow if so inclined.
And if we are wrong, we can make a good warning example and hope the
others can save us! :-)
Strength through diversity.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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