Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:
The Singularity meme is a psychological force that mediates against any form of prejudice by showing that all inequalities are temporary, even genuine inequalities; it doesn't matter who has an IQ of 130 and who has an IQ of 90 today, if both can cooperate to have an IQ of 180 in a few years. And the *real* Singularity is a fundamentally egalitarian force because I expect the Singularity to completely ignore
the faction fights that humans spend so much time pursuing. Nor does gray goo respect national boundaries. We win together, or lose together. We
are all in the same boat.
(end)
Eliezer, amen to your vision of the future!! I would love to have an intellect equal to you and other extremely bright and educated extropians. Still, I would need years of study to catch up with you, though. But, during that time you would all be continuing to learn, grow and implement enhancing cognitive technologies on a level I could not. So, I would never catch up to you!! I would be a lot further along then I am now... A world where we are all equals in mental capacity just does not seem in any way realistic to me even with a singularity having taken place.
So, despite this disagreement, I like your sentiment for having a world without the glaring deprivation, hatred and inequalities of the present world.
It would be wonderful to have a planet where humanity has put behind its tribalism. But, if you are an educated person like Mike Lorrey who has suffered from the wonderful new global economy, don't expect an "oh no problem, the future will be just great!" attitude. In Mike's suffering shoes it would not be so easy to be detached about such matters.
Tomorrow many people will be celebrating the birth of a man who some say was divine and the prince of peace. If so(I believe so), he may be showing up just as things get REALLY interesting down here.
best wishes,
John
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:30 MDT