[extropy-chat] Transhumanism and non-gender roles

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Dec 02, 2003 at 04:07:59PM -0800, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Would not a good cure for that be to make or seek out
> new things?  An elder of the 80s would surely have

The "seen it all syndrome" is only in part due to the
actual loss of novelty due to previous exposure. 
It's definitely mostly an aging artifact, similiar 
to the subjectively slower passage of time (both 
can be temporarily disrupted with psychoactive 
substances; e.g. with LSD down to ridiculous extremes 
of subjectively stopped time flow).

Unfortunately, there's no way to "cure" that with 
meds. It is definitely hard to establish a habit of
habit disruption, but it's possibly the only simple
countermeasure that might work. (Oh, and getting
a good night's worth of sleep).

There are exceptions from the rule, though, people who
remain novelty-seekers up to extremely high age. 
(I've met a nanotechnology enthusiast who's well 
past 80, for instance).

> found some novelty in the World Wide Web during the
> 90s (assuming said elder was willing to be exposed to
> it).  Likewise, one who believes they have experienced
> everything could take a crack at designing, say, a
> nanotech assembler to leave a grand legacy.  (If one

Many professionals can't do the same occupation in their spare 
time as during dayjob. I've talked to some old hand
system designers, but while they are very effective
in what they do they do not revel in novel approaches
(in their craft, it's frequently only for the better).

> has experienced *everything*, this should be simple -
> but, of course, it won't be since there are ways of
> thinking and fields of knowledge one has not truly
> experienced.)

We do need a speciality sustainable nootropic that's low on side effects.
Unfortunately, there's probably no such thing 
save of completely replasticize the brain.
 
> There's always more to learn and do, although one
> might become tired of it and start justifying that
> everything out there is all the same.

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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