At 06:05 PM 4/21/01 EDT, Greg Burch wrote:
>All of the thinking here is
>premised on straight-line projections of current technologies and a deep
>antipathy to private enterprise.
Actually I find a great deal of what Liz Elliott reports in this piece to
be of deep concern, and it's not self-evident that Promethean technologies
will inevitably solve these problems.
Her line of critique states that X *is* now the case, and will yield
exponential damage unless it's stopped (at what colossal cost is rarely
investigated, admittedly).
Against this, transhumanists can offer only hopeful projections of what
hypertechnological solutions *might* emerge, at best, and--by most people's
standards--nightmarish confirmation of her fears at even bester (`We'll
tear apart the solar system and upload into computronium').
That is, she's saying: `If you keep eating this terrible shit and smoking
your head off, you'll die prematurely of a heart attack if the cancer
doesn't get you first.'
We retort: `Not to worry, dude. The nanomachines will clean our arteries
and repair the carcinomas. Burp. Pass the pizza.'
She replies: `So you say. But what if that *doesn't* happen? What if your
imaginative projections are wrong? What if it's domed cities on the moon by
2000 all over again?'
We reply: `Chill, babe. We'll have our heads frozen and come back when it's
better.'
She says despairingly: `Do you really think anyone will be around to revive
you? Maybe they will--to put you on trial.'
We're asleep in front of the computer and miss that.
Damien Broderick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:49 MDT