[extropy-chat] Hello again...

[Dirk Bruere]

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:

>Welcome back Dirk. You will find that many posters on the WTA list,
>with some notable exceptions of course, also post here.
>You will not get kicked out of here for not being a libertarian: I am
>not one, and I am still welcome.
>  
>
Well, I should clarify.
I am not an *economic* libertarian, but I am one when it comes pretty 
much all else.

>I think what triggered angry reactions from a few people on the WTA
>list was that some of your statements could have been interpreted as
>supporting racism. Having read what you write on the Consensus
>website, I don't think you are really a racist (now, please correct me
>if I am wrong:-).
>  
>
You are correct.
However, it has only been Hughes that has been persistently 'on my case' 
despite the complete transparency of my position, to the point of 
malicious fabrication (on record).
I have a tendency to jump to the defence of those who I see as having 
their freedom of expression curtailed, even racists.
The last straw for Hughes was when I casually mentioned that I thought 
the Nazis could be called proto-Transhumanists, despite their lamentable 
and ineffective methods. Arguing the point sealed my fate.

Anyway, it was merely an off-the-cuff remark and I don't particularly 
want to continue the debate here. Suffice to say that here we can 
perhaps agree to differ and leave it at that.

>I plan to wake from cryonic sleep as soon as some specific technical
>options will be available, for example backing up one's mind to disk.
>I am sure that in a world with that kind of technology, it will be
>easy to choose the color of one's skin. Myself, I think I will go for
>pale green. Why? No special reason, just that it is one of my favorite
>colors. I would also like to have wings and a suitable muscular
>structure to support them. Last but not least, I wish to have largely
>increased emphatic understanding of other's points of view.
>I find it difficult to understand why some of us attach so much
>importance to some small variations in the physical and cultural
>makeup of today's humans when we all (claim to) advocate a posthuman
>future with exponentially increased options for physical and cultural
>diversity.
>G.
>  
>
Well, that's easy to answer.
Only a very specific cultural mix is going to make the transition, and 
we are borderline IMO as it is.
I had a look at the Transtopia site and one comment struck me. It was 
that a really superior AI might have no intererst in uplifting us any 
more than we would uplift ant and mice if we had the capability. IMO 
that's a definite possibility and merely emphasises the work that should 
be done on our genetics *before* we create such an AI (or it comes into 
existence as an emergent property of (say) the Net).

-- 
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org