Re: Posthumans in Nature

Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Fri, 12 Nov 1999 18:22:35 -0500

Dden Otter wrote:

> ----------
> > hal@finney.org said:
> >
> > > Even in this forum we often succumb to a form of chauvinism, in which any
> > > future which isn't dominated by humans is seen as a failure.
>
> Remember folks, the moment you die (permanently), the
> universe might as well cease to exist. Nothing matters
> anymore. So let's focus on staying alive.

Interesting comment. I would have said that a possible universe actualized by and within the finite experience of [N] can no longer be perceived; but that it does matter insofar as it was communicated and experienced vicariously by others, thereby perpetuated as memory.

In this context, "staying alive" means one's continuing investment in the evolution of a unique ontological vision, and, as noted by others in this thread, complying with those ad hoc personal rules that have proven to be of instrumental value.



Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA