[extropy-chat] Are ancestor simulations immoral?)

[Natasha Vita-More]

At 09:15 AM 5/29/2006, Jef wrote:

>In the broad sense meant by the Buddha, to be alive is to want, and
>the nature of this wanting, this feeling of separation between
>now-self and future-self, is the great understanding he wanted to
>share.  By understanding this, we (as subjective agents) can clean up
>our internal models of the world and proceed more effectively in our
>lives.

How many followers of Buddha can dance on the head of a pin and still not 
find happiness?
You are absolutely correct about cleaning up our "internal models" of the 
world that surrounds us and how we interpret, relate, and act upon our 
impulses.  Each moment is a choice and the choice is ours to make.  All 
that means is that it does not matter what Buddha is if it is only a stance 
to dance upon.

>Of course, as with all great thinking, layers of mystery and
>decoration were added, so many people have many different ideas of
>what it's all about.
>
>"Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as
>mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate
>knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not
>mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very
>substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again
>as mountains, and waters once again as waters."
>- Ch'uan Teng Lu (The Way of Zen 126)

Lovely.

Natasha

<http://www.natasha.cc/>Natasha <http://www.natasha.cc/>Vita-More
Cultural Strategist - Designer
President, <http://www.extropy.org/>Extropy Institute
Member, <http://www.profuturists.com/>Association of Professional Futurists
Founder, <http://www.transhumanist.biz/>Transhumanist Arts & Culture

If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside the circle, 
then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the 
circle and everything outside the circle, then that is an open system 
perspective. - Buckminster Fuller


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