Re: Cheerful libertarianism

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Sep 09 2003 - 15:21:44 MDT

  • Next message: Anders Sandberg: "Re: Cheerful libertarianism"

    On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 04:18:37PM -0000, Randy S wrote:
    > Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> said:
    >
    > But Europeans share more of your genes, Anders. Going with the whole concept
    > of nepotism as gene-survival strategy, why would you want to help African
    > cultures, instead of helping your own European cousins?
    >
    > Or are you unconsciously striking an altruistic pose, hoping to better pass
    > on your own genes by doing so?

    I have no loyalty to my genes, only to my memes. I do not plan to
    reproduce genetically but rather memetically. By spreading my memes I am
    in a sense uploading myself into mankind (although I prefer to have one
    or more continous central consciousness threads active too). If I can
    get millions to hold similar beliefs and values as I hold, then I have
    succeeded far better than I could ever hope for genetically.

    While our genetic machinery might bias us in many ways, we are also able
    to hijack the biases cognitively. We are only controlled if we allow
    ourselves to be.

    There is also the reciprocal benefit thing. I believe I will be better
    off if a lot of people like me, are peaceful and prosperous and have
    reasons to trade neat things and services with me. I also think I will
    benefit by having a large pool of diversity accesible - new ideas, new
    solutions, alternative strategies and plenty of surprises. Hence there
    is no reason to strive for monoculture but rather diverse cultures with
    certain biases. And I fully accept that the situation is symmetric with
    other people: there is room for overlaying our memetic radiations.

    Sure, I'm very egocentric. It is just that I try to enlarge my ego to
    encompass all things.

    (Tuesdays I'm in megalomaniac pantheist mode)

    -- 
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    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
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Sep 09 2003 - 15:28:36 MDT