From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 12:58:56 MDT
BillK writes
> On Sun Aug 03, 2003 02:41 am Lee Corbin speculated:
>
> > In less than a thousand years, the Earth
> > will probably be at the center of a civilization expanding at
> > the speed of light. By the same token, if there ever are
> > aliens in the skies of Earth, they will be from a civilization
> > (when they left it) about a thousand years ahead of ours.
>
> I have generally tended to agree with Lee's previous statement that we
> are alone and there are no aliens out there waiting to pounce on us.
>
> But there is another alternative that I don't remember anyone
> mentioning. Look around you. Old folk with a good pension or a pile of
> assets don't do much. Sitting on your porch in a rocking chair seems
> like a good deal to them. It is the young who haven't made their pile
> who rush around 'doing' things.
I think that it's extremely important for us to question
the inevitability of senescence and death.
NOTHING is more important than uprooting the notions
that we must die. I would urge you to check out in
more detail the writings of Max More, and Mike Perry
---the latter in his great book "Forever For All".
More specifically, exactly *why*, we must ask, are
those old people sitting around in their rocking
chairs? Are they making an aesthetic statement of
some kind? No. The infirmities of old age are
directly traceable to degeneration of the nervous
system and wearing out of other body parts. THIS
IS POTENTIALLY CORRECTABLE.
> Now if you add together increased lifespans, reducing
> birthrates, the need to be 'safe' (to protect your
> vastly increased lifespan) then the outcome seems clear.
No.
1. The "increased lifespans" must be and will be
accompanied by increased vitality and increased
ambition.
2. "Reduced birthrate"?????
Never! The whole cosmos beckons to us to bring
life to it, and whether by copying, or by Von
Neumann probes, by or old fashioned colonization,
that we must do.
3. "Safety". Yes, that is high on the agenda of
anyone who wants to keep on living. But in this
regard we must emulate nature, who guarantees
life extension by flooding all available niches
with ever more life. Earth must become the source
of trillions of spoors carrying copies of us and
lifeforms of all of the most advanced kinds that
we can engineer to the very ends of our infinite
universe.
> An OLD population with very few (or even none) young entities won't
> actually 'do' very much. You might think now that you will want to do
> lots of exciting research, world-shaping projects, etc., but the future
> reality will be very different. It's rather like a self-confident young
> man stating with supreme assurance that 'marriage and kids won't change
> me in the slightest'.
Sadly, the reality for me and perhaps for you will probably
be just as you say. We may have probably been born too soon.
But that is *no* reason to adopt a defeatist philosophy!
Anyway, I *will* want to continue to delight in understanding,
and, were I only able to muster the intelligence, the knowledge,
and the energy, then I also *would* be among those doing research
and exploring the galaxies.
Well, why not? What is physically impossible about *me* having
unlimited energy? It's just a matter of the application of
intelligence, and the sun at present supplies vastly more
energy than would be required. All I need to do is live
long enough, and somehow survive this century.
> There might well be thousands of alien civilizations out
> there, but they are all doing the vastly advanced equivalent
> of sitting on their front porch in their rocking chairs
> watching the universe go by.
The word "all" should have tipped you off to your error.
Some humans will become immortal. Some thinking entities
will colonize (and as Tipler says "engulf") the universe.
We need at every turn to spread and support memes to
foster this ambition within ourselves. It's why I
am an Extropian.
Lee
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