Re: Smoothing the Path[Was:Re: Singularity Passivity]

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
27 Aug 1997 11:55:11 +0200


Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com (Dan Clemmensen) writes:

> Anders Sandberg wrote:
> > In the future scenarios developed by Aleph, [...]
>
> Are these available on the Web?

Not yet, and the first web version will be in swedish. We spent
a weekend coming up with the scenarios, but then nobody took
up the job of writing them up (I have a pile of very good notes
here), so eventually I got fed up and began the work myself;
due to time limitations it will take a while. But they will appear,
that I promise.

> > I noticed recently that
> > catastrophe theory could be applied to society. Essentially the
> > catastrophe surface was controlled by the parameters of how much
> > society tried to control new technology (social impact statements vs.
> > invent whatever you like) and how well it adapted to new technology
> [SNIP]
> I think the best historical model is Japan, but the French
> and Russian revolutions seem to follow this model also.

Interesting that you mention them, they seem to fit in quite
well (although the Russian revolution may have had other reasons too).
Japan would be a nice example of an adaptor society, while France
was a non-adaptive society.

> If there is any interest in this subject, perhaps we could set
> up an outline and decide what subtopics should be investigated.
> Alternatively, we can just free-flow as we usually do, but in
> about a week we can summarize and then fill in the gaps.
> individual humans. for most

That might be a good idea, although we might start the free flow
by mentioning some important factors. Societal, economic and individual
adaption to new technology and system changes is one important aspect.
Another might be how fast counter-movement appears and how strong
they can become.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se              http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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