[extropy-chat] Human - Posthuman gap (was: Spain has become the third country in Europe to legalise gay marriage)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2005 at 03:27:33PM +0930, Emlyn wrote:

> The only salvation I see for natural humans is if some subset of
> posthumans decides to protect them, providing them with some form of
> welfare. Maybe it could happen... as the band Porno for Pyros once
> said, we'd make great pets.

I am hoping for a Lamarckian upgrade of the human primate, providing both
potential protectors (retaining empathy) and reducing the number of 
those needing protection.

If none of it happens, and we'll be in the truly dynamic part of the
Singularity regime we'll go extinct.     

This is a dire outcome, and hopefully a source of strong motivation to not
blow our chances while we're still in control. The trajectory envelope will
get narrower with each time tick (a good model is deflecting a giant
impactor; it's very easy if you start early, nearly impossible if the
impactor is close).    
 
> * Assuming no welfare for posthumans from humans, you must deduce that
> posthuman populations will be more competitive than humans, otherwise
> they wont be able to establish themselves. Given the pre-existing
> human-biased social/political/economic structures, you can further
> deduce a fairly wide margin required between humans and posthumans
> before posthumans worthy of distinct categorization from humans can
> establish as a separate group.

Pollution/habitat denaturation (what is driving the current extinction) is
sufficient, there's no need for active competition. 

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