I've GOT to signal this British site to the list!
A bit of background: some time ago there was a magazine called LM. I read a
few issues and was wondering if the acronym stood for Libertarian Monthly...
To my amazament, I eventually found out that years ago it used to be called
Living Marxism! However, that was before a few changes of ownership...
Anyways, the magazine went belly-up over a year ago and I just found out
that the same people have set up a website:
http://www.spiked-online.com/sections/central/index.htm
A quick look at the science section should be enough to see why it may be of
interest to the list. As an example, I am posting an article, below.
Also worth a look is the Institute of Ideas (somehow connected to
Spiked-online): http://www.instituteofideas.com
Mobius Dick versus the Luddites
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D16F.htm
by Dave Hallsworth
At last - a pop group willing to take a stand against the greens and the
softies.
Mobius Dick - who describe themselves as a 'techno band that takes
technology seriously' - argue that 'technology is the most important force
in the world today'. And they're not afraid to make enemies - having spoken
out against Bill Joy, co-founder and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems,
whose warnings against the developments in nano-technology, robotics and
genetic engineering shook the scientific community in the USA.
Joy is concerned that unrestrained technological developments could threaten
the future of the human race - and is calling for limits, voluntary or
imposed, on what scientists can do. But AG Android, frontman for Mobius
Dick, thinks Joy is rather paranoid:
'Machines are already your servants, in time they will be your friends,
perhaps even your lovers. Some kind of change is inevitable and people need
to think about what kind. But inducing fear in others won't cut it. There
are a lot of options out there and we need to see what they are and decide
what we want.'
Mobius Dick claim to have been 'originally founded by our
great-grandfathers, whose efforts to make steam-powered synthesisers failed
amid a cloud of coal smoke'. Perhaps more believably, they argue that
generation by generation we get more used to technological advances that
seem frightening at first.
'Of course the future seems scary now', sings AG Android in the song Embrace
the Machine. 'But these cheesy science-fiction sound effects were scary to
your parents and grandparents when science and the atom seemed scary and
new. Now those old movies seem homey and reassuring. That's how it will be
for your children and grandchildren.'
'Cloning seems frightening now', says Android. 'One day it will just
seem…quaint.'
Mobius Dick's new album Got Dick? is available now. To hear tracks from it,
or to find out more abound the band, visit the Mobius Dick page on the MP3
website
Estropico:
http://utenti.tripod.it/estropico
The first and only (so far) Italian transhumanist website.
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