[extropy-chat] late response to Dan/Technotranscendence

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Matthew Gingell <gingell at gnat.com> wrote:
> I suggest we stick with the Enlightenment
> one-man-one-vote thing, at
> least till we can make some more progress on this
> whole human condition
> fiasco.

Hear, hear.  You want the government to reflect the
interests of high-IQ people like you are currently?
Then develop mental upgrades, then make them cheap and
widely available, such that most people will improve
themselves to have high IQ (as currently measured, not
accounting for any potential retooling of IQ
measurements that may result).  This assumes that,
given the choice, people would rather be smart than be
dumb; the evidence seems to indicate this, though
there is some evidence that may indicate the contrary.
But even if that's not the case, there's still a side
benefit: you may be able to boost yourself too.

Democracy takes on a new meaning, when memetic
engineering like this becomes feasable.  (I would
consider this approach partially memetics, even though
it is not primarily about the spread of a certain
idea.)