Re: SOCIETY: Techno Elites

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Thu, 26 Dec 1996 14:49:21 -0800 (PST)


>> A techno-elite will arise in *any* scenario. And I, for one,
>> don't see anything wrong with that

> I think that's either a defeatist, fatalistic or impassionate attitude
> to hold. And apart from that we have to make shure that there will not
> be a too small elite as it will stop the exponential growth.

Terms like "fatalistic" apply only to those who put constraints on
the exercise of free will, not to those who simply recognize that
inherent differences in capability exist--and should. The two forces
that drive evolution are diversity and selection--if one does away
with either, then progress will stop. A capitalist society grants
only one kind of equality--rights. The richest industrialists and
the most wretched pauper have the same rights to life, liberty,
and property; and the same moral means of exercising those rights--
free and honest trade. Any attempt to "equalize" the products of
that trade--wealth, education, power--is doomed to infringe upon
those fundamental rights, and destroy the rational, moral foundation
of a free society, and destoys the diversity needed for it to grow.

Rationally moral transhumans will help the masses transform precisely
because they will be more valuable and profitable that way. How many
blacksmith shops are there today? Not many, because the technology
advanced to the point where they weren't needed, and the "elite"
naturally formed companies to produce new products, trained workers
to make them, invested in more research, educated their children, and
did all the other things that follow from being a rational capitalist.
This is the "selection" part of evolution--old things are put aside,
and the winners rise to the top, until a new thing comes along.

We must resist the temptation to "control" the evolution of society
or of ourselves, but rely on the spontaneous order and feedback
systems that will be most effective.