RE: MEMETICS: The Triumph of Reason

Crosby_M (CrosbyM@po1.cpi.bls.gov)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 12:18:32 -0500


Lyle wrote, regarding Eliezer's rant against Hugo de Garis:
< What fascinates me about this is that I wrote exactly the same thing
when I was your age. I was anti-racist and anti-sexist; I was every
bit as strident, every bit as self-righteous, as you. This behaviour
has puzzled me ever since.>

Uh, WAS? Does this imply that you have seen the light in your wise old
age and are now racist and sexist?

I'm over 40 now but have yet to be enlightened as to why my gender,
and especially my race, has anything to do with most of the things I'm
concerned about. The only thing I was self-righteous about as a young
rebel was the desire to overthrow the establishment. I still don't
care much for 'the establishment' but no longer care about
overthrowing it, simply because I've found my own niche and think the
establishment will evolve as new technologies and concerns develop;
or, at least, as the dead wood falls and new growth takes its
place...

However, if immortality is achieved, this cycle might be broken and
there might be no natural churning of generations, less chance for
cultural evolution as the Old Ones, set in their ways, maintain a grip
on existing assets and culture. Perhaps, then, the only way for new
generations to establish themselves WOULD be by morphing into some new
'race' or 'gender', some new clade, that would have to strike off into
the cosmos to create its own niche. In this case, they would be
'cladist' by definition; but, that's certainly not the situation in
our current world.

Mark Crosby