[extropy-chat] Re Fight for Evolution?

[kevinfreels.com]

> [PB]
> Yes but the question is, "Are these overspecialized individuals less human
> than the people 100 years ago.  The ponzi schemes of a last century still
> work with little variation, only now the scope is global and the $ figures
> in the billions.  The popular delusions and madness of crowds hasn't
changed
> a bit.  Have we as a species gotten smarter, wiser more rational, do we
> question more what we see hear and read? No. I say as a whole, our species
> has lost touch, dumbed down, prefer Visa to Mastercard, think Coke is
better
> than Pepsi.  Only an elite few, the numbers may be growing, have critical
> thinking skills but the gulf between the thinking and the sleeping is
> growing wider every day.  Just a hunch on my part.  I can't point to the
> data yet.  I'll get a team of coeds on it immediately.
>
[KF]
I wouldn;t say the species has changed very much at all. We're a young
species with a long way to go. I somehow doubt the numbers have changed too
much over the years. This is probably a problem with perception. We are
terrible at that. We always think the past was better than the present. We
fear airplanes more than cars. And when we drive, we refer to everyone
driving faster than us as idiots and slower ones as slowpokes. There is no
research available for this, but my guess is that there has never been a
shortage of ignorant people.

>
>
> [PB]
> The most important people are the ones who can creatively manage the
> specialized  and they are getting harder and harder to find, they don't
want
> to be a part of "it" any more. It is these effective and creative managers
> who are being marginalized more and more...  again, no Harvard study to
> prove my point, just direct experience with how the souls of companies are
> crushed as they are thrown to the wolves of Wall Street, sucked up by
global
> conglomerates and devoured by the P&L of the quarterly report.
>
> >
[KF]
Business is business. Always has been. Babylon was no different. Except now
we pay people where before we enslaved them. Slavery is just not acceptable
any more - all the way down to the most ignorant people. This is indeed
progress.

> >
> [PB]
>
> Douglas Adams was brilliant, his work was ironic, complex and he created
> elaborate social systems and physical realities that he worked within.  He
> created a universe within which there were rules for how his hyper reality
> drive worked and his machine worked according to those rules.  He created
> intricate thematic structures the way William Gibson and Arthur C. Clarke
> have.
>
> Lost is "nuts" and to mention it's sophomoric brain soothing power in the
> same paragraph as Hitchhiker has poor Douglas spinning in his grave.

[KF] While I agree his work was genius, I can hardly call it less nuts. It
was the nuttiness that made it fun.
>
[PB]> As for lightening up, I can out quote you line for line regarding
Caddy
> Shack, Road Warrior or Wedding Crashers any day of the week.  Plus, coeds
> still find me adorable and several have offered to have my children.
> Strippers give me lap dances for free. And a "marathon of specialized
> people" sounds like an aimless herd of sheep running for a cliff.
>
> Though I refuse to fiddle too much while Rome burns, I invite you anytime
to
> NYC for a www.svn.org event where the wine flows free and the women are
> young and pretty.
>
>
[KF] I may have to take you up on that - or at least the part my GF doesn't
mind. lol