From: Giu1i0 Pri5c0 (gpmap@runbox.com)
Date: Sat Jul 19 2003 - 04:22:29 MDT
If I were 20 again I would probably be dreaming of making someday a very,
very direct contribution to the development of ultratechnologies to take us
much closer to posthumanity. Something like leading the development of the
first conscious AI, or leading the development of a super ultra MRI at 1
nanometer resolution that permits uploading consciousness.
At a certain point most of us realize that they will never have the skill,
or the time, or simply that they will never be at the right place at the
right moment to play this kind of role. At the same time we can all do
things to facilitate the task of those few lucky persons who are or will be
in such a position.
Something we all can do is promoting the acceptance of the coming of
posthumanity, spreading the meme. Try saying to friends "Well it is quite
likely that in 50 years with AI nanotech and stuff people do not have to die
anymore, one is able to switch sex at will, telepathy will be achieved by
plugging organic brains in the wireless net, ..." and see what sort of
horrified response you get even from very bright people.
They will say "death is noble and gives meaning to life", and things like
this. Now what is this bullshit? There is still a lot of work to do in order
to make the majority see as reasonable options those things that we consider
as evident.
Perhaps trying to propagate our ideas in a measured and reasonable way is
already enough.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: How Extropians Live Their Lives was: Optimism
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 07:14:49PM -0700, Dan Fabulich wrote:
> >
> > I hinted at the answer above, but it should seem obvious now what it
must
> > be: all of the positions I've described are "extreme." None of them are
> > balanced against the other; all of them are taken to their "logical
> > conclusions." It's clear that there needs to be a middle ground, a
> > sliding scale. Get used to working part time and perhaps I'll find it
> > more fulfilling than I realize; maybe I'll get hooked and become an
> > ascetic instead.
> >
> > Perhaps my imagination is simply drained, but it's hard to see what kind
> > of work I can usefully do in my free time, to contribute to the
> > ultratechnologies.
>
> But is contributing to the ultratechnologies the best way of furthering
> transhuman goals? There are certainly some technologies that would
> benefit from more people tinkering, and some transhumanists that are
> well into relevant technologies and developing them. But then there is
> the rest of the project: we need to make sure these technologies are
> usable for transhuman goals, and not just furthering of current human
> goals (or even worse, dangerous or subhumanity-causing). Here we need
> people participating in the public debate to make the transhumanist
> position acceptable at the negotiation table, here we need people
> analysing stuff on all scales to point out possibilities and threats,
> here we need people trying out different solutions, technologies and
> social networks to see what works and what doesn't work. And of course,
> it would be great to have more people with funding opportunities within
> this ideological sphere.
>
> Some of this is "activism" and some of it is "scholarship". But there is
> also plenty of room of being an entrepreneur and a transhumanist
> (selling something transhuman, making money that can be used in
> transhuman ways or just having a transhumanism friendly organisation) or
> even doing it from the inside of an organisation (sure, foobar corp
> might not care the least about transhumanity, but if the marketing
> department has a transhumanist flair or the research department
> understand the importance of nanotech the effects can be rather good -
> for all involved).
>
> As I see it the question "how can I get involved?" can be turned into
> the question-tree: "Can I turn my current activities and interests into
> something more useful? If not, do I want to change them in such a
> direction?". Most people are going to find that the first step actually
> gives plenty of room for practical action.
>
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
> asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
> GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
>
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