[extropy-chat] SOC: Advanced society = advanced morality?

[Technotranscendence]

On Wednesday, January 14, 2004 3:35 PM Jef Allbright
jef at jefallbright.net wrote:
> I would agree with you that Victorian morality
> appears to have been a backlash effect, and
> we may see similar ripples in next few
> decades, which I hope are damped by
> greatly enhanced communication capability.

I think most modern views of the Victorian Era are a bit simplistic.  A
lot of it is simplistic in the sense of how the Middle Ages is
romanticized and simplified.

> My thesis is in quite the opposite direction:
> that greater morality corresponds with the
> greater freedom of choice and the greater
> awareness of consequences that can be
> expected with a more highly evolved society.
>
> There is a difficulty with the term "morality"
> in that it implies subjective human values.
> Perhaps a better term would be "right action"
> but this is closely associated with Buddhism.
> Maybe we'll eventually switch to the rather
> sterile term "utility" for most such discussion.

Yeah, without a stable meaning to the term, it can mean anything.  Even
"utility" doesn't help because you have to asked utility in terms of
what?

Cheers!

Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Poetry.html