Re: Politics, economics, irrationality are real phenomena.

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 12:49:24 MDT

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    Another factor worth taking into account is that a lot gets done despite
    people being lazy, stupid and misguided. It is easy to fall into the
    trap of assuming that everybody ought to be as smart and reasonable as
    oneself. But it is also easy to think that everybody is an idiot - it is
    mostly a matter of current mood and personality. In reality there is an
    even mix of people, and no futuristic project based on assuming that
    people are homogeneous has any real chance of working.

    Transhumanist discussion often assumes that transhumanists have a key
    position - as an avant garde leading the revolution, as the architects
    designing the posthuman future. But even if that vision were to be true
    it would have to rely on the masses. And in reality most of the changes
    in technology, economy and ways of living come from below rather than
    from top-down leadership. Figuring out how to actually build affordable
    matter compilers, use neurointerfaces and live with life extension is
    something that will be done in a distributed manner. And it cannot
    really be planned, it has to happen. The best we can do is to show the
    way, make people interested, help to make it politically possible and
    acceptable and formulate overarching visions that hopefully provide a
    framework on which to build. But we should not be surprised or dismayed
    that people build what *they* want, not what *we* want.

    -- 
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
    asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
    GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
    


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