Return Of The Nanotopians! (was Re: Goals)

mark@unicorn.com
Mon, 17 May 1999 11:21:21 -0700 (PDT)

jonwill [jonwill@erols.com] wrote:
>What person does not want the ability to live as they desire?

That statement is so totally tautological that it's worthless; by definition, people desire their desires.

>With a state of being that fulfills both sides of human duality (every
>human consists of both a tangible physical existence and an intangible
>mental existence).

Uh...huh... So 'mental existence' is not a product of the brain?

>Through some combination of machines, robots, computers, and/or other
>technologies, humanity will have the ability to provide for all tangible
>physical needs and desires.

Yehaaa!! I want my own universe and I want it now. Gimme, gimme, gimme... oh, you can't do that? Why not?

>Just give this machine any type of matter, such as water, and it
>can rearrange the atoms to make anything else, such as an apple, or gold.

Yow! Not just lead into gold folks, but *WATER* into gold.

>Every home could have a
>machine, consisting of a very large quantity of these microscopic
>nanomachines,
>to provide for all material needs.

Machine, I want a Jupiter-sized brain. No, I don't care if you have to dismantle all my neighbors and the rest of the planet to build it, just get on and do it. You are there to provide for all my material needs, and I expect you to do it.

Why is it that these utopias which are going to provide for all our needs are always proposed by people whose idea of 'needs' isn't very imaginative?

>For example, if you want a glass of orange
>juice simply tell the machine and it can use water from a water line
>connection
>to make a glass filled with orange juice.

Do you have a clue about chemistry? Hint: Water is also known as H20 because it consists of Hydrogen atoms and Oxygen atoms. You have a hard time making a glass out of hydrogen and oxygen.

>People will not have to work
>because these robots, computers and machines, will be able to perform any
>task
>that needs to be done, or is desired to be done.

So you replace human work with SI work? What are you going to do when those robots want their right to sit on their ass watching TV all day? Or are you some kind of carbon chauvinist?

>Money, a medium of exchange for
>material goods and services, will become obsolete,

Why? Who do you think is going to design all these wonderful new technologies? Who's going to spend all day designing robots if they don't get paid for it?

>is no need to harvest
>trees, or other natural resources, because nanomachines can make anything
>desired.

>From what? How can you build 'anything you desire' without the raw materials
you need to build it?

>People will be happy about being in a state of happiness,
>a perpetual love of everything.

And the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and all that crap... until the robots rebel and throw all those worthless humans into their nanoassemblers for raw materials.

Mark