On Fri, Sep 07, 2001 at 08:21:36AM -0700, Mark Walker wrote:
>
> Waldemar Ingdahl
> suggested that there is some antagonism between eudamonia and the
> singularity. My response is that there is at least some connection, for at
> least some of the Greek philosophers thought that philosophy was
> incomprehensible to the many in just the same way that postsingularity
> beings are often said to be incomprehensible to (at least) presingularity
> human beings.
Hmm, do you mean that since some philosophers thought comprehension of
eudaimonia was not possible for the many and the singularity is also
incomprehensible, there is a link? That sounds rather far-fetched.
> The most vivid description of this is Plato's myth of the cave
> (in the Republic) where he contrasts the wisdom of the philosopher king as
> being analogous to a free person enjoying the sunlight; while the vast
> majority of humanity are like slaves who live there whole life shackled to a
> cave wall forever cut-off from seeing things as they truly are.
In the singularity case *all* of humanity are shackled to the wall, and
the images we see do not have any necessary relationship with the
post-singularity world. To extend the analogy, they could just be
reflections from a puddle of water near the entrance. The eudaimonic
issue is how to get out of the cave, and it is likely not helped by
intense study of the waves.
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