Re: What is the Extropian answer to war? (was: Raisin Bombers over Afghanistan)

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Sep 26 2001 - 14:38:21 MDT


On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 08:44:35PM +0100, Bryan Moss wrote:
> Hubert Mania wrote:
>
> > By the way, what IS the extropian answer to war?
>
> My somewhat near-term solution: medicate. Drop genetically engineered
> fast-spreading fungi that release highly-addictive pacifying narcotics into
> the countries water supply. Go in, (re-)establish democracy. Begin
> immunization.
>
> Alright, it's probably not feasible and it might be considered an act of
> force (?) but to my mind this meets the main criteria I have for any of
> these operations: speed. If we could quickly establish a compliant,
> dependent, and possibly more suggestible populace in problem areas we could
> deal with these situations in a timely fashion.

The fun part with this unethical and dangerous "solution" is of course
when some friendly person drops them in the US water supply too - after
all, isn't the US in dire need of becoming a more compliant and
dependent society? The suggestible part might be fixed already.

Seriously, I can't see what makes this "solution" extropian. It is not
based on any consideration of the rights of other people or their
self-direction, trust in open societies (last I checked, mind control
did not produce democracy, but maybe the Ministry of Truth has changed
that in the meantime) or rational thinking (it clouds rational thinking
together with badthink). It just involves high tech.

OK, I guess it was a joke anyway and I should lighten up (I'm suffering
from DAIS - Deadline and Autumn Induced Seriousness). But I am
getting worried about the dearth of really extropian material on the
list. How many have actually read and pondered the Principles?

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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