[extropy-chat] Uses to which Space Could Be Put

[Lee Corbin]

Spike writes

> > Do you want a future where it is be competitive or die?  Is that all
> > there is or ever can be? ... - samantha
> 
> That was all there was in the past, as far back as the Precambrian
> explosion.  I don't see it changing now, or at the singularity.

Yes, there does seem to be an inevitable Darwinian aspect to the universe,
almost tautological. Those that survive... do.

Yet the nuts and bolts of the way the competition actually affects
units at different levels differs greatly from time to time. We
live in a happy (for us) time in which *people* are not so vigorously
selected against as in the past. Today's units of competition tend
to be ideas (on the very short term) and civilizations (on a much
longer term).

If a good Singularity occurs, and all of us people make it into a
delightful existence, then we must still realize that we are just
momentarily insulated from the real competition. E.g., our AI-gods
or protectors may succumb to others, or to other algorithms; or to
put it another way, the immortal incredibly powerful future versions
of our very selves still have to realize that the universe still is,
and as you write, always has been Darwinian.

Lee