[extropy-chat] Commentary: Does Karl Schroeder's opinion really matter?

[Russell Wallace]

On 4/20/06, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
>
> What do you think abaouat Schroeder?
>
>  http://www.kschroeder.com/blog/1145366098
>

Schroeder, now I remember that name! For a review of 'Permanence' (both the
review and the novel are recommended), see
http://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0408/0408521.pdf

I tried posting the following reply on the blog site, but it hasn't showed
up - is there a delay for manual review on the site?:

Karl Schroeder, author of 'Permanence'? Excellent book, one of the most
thought-provoking I've read in a long time.

So I am surprised to see you of all people advocate suppressing progress,
because it seems to me that having written such a book, you must know -
understand at a gut level, not just as an abstract concept - that evolution
doesn't magically stop, that the current state of affairs isn't especially
favored as an evolutionary optimum, that stopping progress will not result
in stasis, but in decline and ultimately extinction.

Now, there is a small lunatic fringe among transhumanists who want to
convert themselves into entities with the power of gods and morals and
aesthetics somewhere between those of a bacterium and a theorem prover, and
to the extent you are criticizing that philosophy I agree with you.

But "Who should decide? The joyous. --Those few among us who live in a state
of grace" is equally alarming. As I think you are aware, handing total power
to a ruling elite for the sake of an ideology is a proven recipe for
disaster at best and hell at worst.

Which group should decide what the future will be? None! No group, no
government, no "few... who live in a state of grace" are good or wise enough
to be trusted with that sort of power. It's a decision for all of humanity -
not by the "pick which untrustworthy political party gets the power" method,
but by the emergent method of the market of ideas.

As it happens this meshes with reality, because if you ask people who
actually work in the relevant fields, the current batch of predictions about
imminent flying cars, moon bases, total cancer cures, electricity too cheap
to meter etc are no more realistic than the last batch; it's going to be the
work of generations - of the world, not just one corporation or nation - to
bring any of this about. So no, let's not help _them_ build our future.
Let's help _us_ build our future.
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