I have noticed in conversations with about half of the more educated
people I talk to about nanotech that they themselves raise the issues of
'upload' and physical space. Our local lad Peter Singer (animal
liberationist) has already suggested 'measures' be taken for population
control in our paper, The Age, in regards to longevity extension.
I myself have a fundamentally different point of view. I believe we should debate matters for three decades and allow everyone to have access to hitech.
BAN THE KILLING OF ANIMALS
VOTE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS [ONE PERSON ONE VOTE]
NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE FRINGE LAND EMPIRES OF CHINA, INDIA AND INDONESIA
GOVERNMENT ELECTRONIC CASH FACILITIES [TO BE PROVIDED IN ADDITION TO PRIVATE BANK ELECTRONIC CASH FACILITIES]
UNIFORMS TO BE OPTIONAL, BY LAW
These may not appear to be so transhumanist, unlike most of my earlier
posters, on celebrating the forthcoming Techno-Rapture and boosting, and
celebrating telomere therapy and arguing for the provision of lifespan
extension techniques to all sentient beings, but heck, the
Escalation/Spike/Singularity requires different flexible strategies to
apply to a more flexible situation. This is the period in which Toffler's
Future Shock begins to operate. Non-transhumanists are going to be
confused and uncertain about strategy in the light of increased ability.
For example, I have asked various people what degree of medical care they
would provide were the best possible care available without cost for any
injured creature. I.e. the principle. I myself would say, if there were a
horse with a broken leg, I would have it fixed. More than that, in
principle I would seek its consent, were that possible, prior to fixing
it. Irrelevent? Certainly not after twenty-two years time, maximum. That
first five years after nano-year is going to seem massive, to us. All that
orbital engineering. The politics. The explosion in spiritual movements.
Wait and see. The nanovirus is complexity itself. We are the viruses. The
process can no more be contained than Ceaucescu could monitor all the
telephone calls in Rumania. The logic is, were this universe
monostructured, conceptual diversity would have been suppressed from the
worlds of the Techno-Rapture already. Has anyone else done a rough
calculation of how many of these there are in a Tipler-version finite
universe assuming carbon-based life began 6.5 billion years after the Big
Bang? I did, a few years ago. It was a lot. Also, average distances
between them seemed fairly low, after the first five million years of
'graduation'. But my figures are probably way off.
is legitimate in the next 30 years.
Lastly, I believe it is vital that conservatives be permitted to remain conservative, even for billenia: with the provisos that meat-eaters can consume created cells or consensually-donated cloned cells (I am happy to donate cloned meat cells from my body for others to eat, if that makes them happy - I am sure that some other beings originally - or still - from other species will in future be willing to say the same) and that victims of force can be offered protective shielding if they request it.
Avatar Polymorph (first names, no surname) 15 August 29 after Armstrong