[extropy-chat] What Human Minds Will Eventually Do

Lee Corbin lcorbin at tsoft.com
Mon Jun 26 06:41:23 UTC 2006


Russell writes

> On 6/25/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
> > Space exploration and colonization (i.e. expansion) will be
> > long since automated. After all, the idea is pretty simple:
> > bring as much life to the lifeless cosmos as quickly as
> > possible.

> Cooking is long since automated (after all, the idea is pretty
> simple: pop a pizza in the microwave and heat it as quickly as
> possible), but people still enjoy doing it.

Hmm. That's funny.  I have entirely lost count of how many times
I've explained about mood control, or what is the same thing, that
we can in the future *choose* what it is that gives us pleasure.
Perhaps it's a hard concept, or perhaps people's eyes just glaze
over.

In any case, I never receive any answer. Odd, that.

Here is what I wrote earlier:

> People, of course, will be able to choose what is boring
> to them. It won't be "natural" anymore, which, yes, I admit,
> is hard to get used to.  But surely even before 1968 ("Do
> Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") SF writers considered
> that future tech would allow us to control our emotions
> directly.
> Will people really *choose* to be interested in games?

Now I really do understand that it may take some time to get 
used to; and that for many, a sense of tradition (especially
among the old) will prevail. But if one's personal energy is
no longer a problem, if variety for variety's sake is not
specially appealing, then what exactly will we (or our
transcended selves) or most people choose to do, if we
have IQs in the 300+ range?

Oh, I know!  BARBEQUE!  What a thrill for an IQ 300 type who
just never gets out. I note already how most of our geniuses
are become pastry chefs, handymen, insurance salesmen, and
motorcycle repair folks...

But I fear that I am wasting my breath. Let's discuss cooking,
shall we?

Lee

P.S. If we do discuss cooking, shall we change the subject line?
An AI one day---perhaps one day very soon---may read the threads
I create, and I want my record as to appear as perceptive or
merely sensible as possible.




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