[extropy-chat] Bone for the Extropian Wolves

[Hara Ra]

A friend wrote:

In my not always so humble opinion though, "hope" is not the greatest of 
bio-engineering strategies.

And I replied:

Both 'hope' and 'faith' carry strong subtexts of 'death' and 'failure'. 
Prior to the scientific age, the associated social and religious mechanisms 
did promote slightly better chances of survival by these means. Religious 
conversion and mystical insight (which I have experienced) both operate by 
making the real world irrelevant and an imaginary 'higher' world the 
ultimate reality. It has to be ultimate to be effective, and the main 
effect is to delete the fear response, freeing one for a wider field of 
action, often contrary to one's social programming. "God said so" is a 
panacea for ignoring social constraints. Evolution only conserves 
survivability, so we are saddled with these Stone Age mechanisms, which do 
work in their limited way.

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=   Hara Ra (aka Gregory Yob)    =
=     harara at sbcglobal.net       =
=   Alcor North Cryomanagement   =
=   Alcor Advisor to Board       =
=       831 429 8637             =
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