[extropy-chat] Just curious, it's not natural!

[Lee Corbin]

Robert also wrote

> On 10/31/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

> > Secondly, if the Singularity tarries, there won't be any people,
> > me or like me either one, you or like you,  señor  Bradbury.
> > La ilaha ila Allah; Muhammadur-rasul Allah.

> I've been thinking a lot about inertia.  I like to remember there
> are many more people leaning towards the saner primary meme
> frameworks than the less sane frameworks.

What a optimist!  What is the basis of your optimism?  (Except for
your list of countries below.) All the posts you see in our little
pathetically small extropian list?

Those with what you'd call "un-saner" primary meme frameworks are
reproducing themselves at an astonishing rate.

>  I'm not sure you could say that rational frameworks are
> dominant yet but the populations leaning that way do
> outnumber and carry significantly more throw weight than
> those leaing in the other direction (E.g. Korea, Japan,
> Taiwan, China, Thailand, much of Russia & India, AU,
> NZ, Canada, a large fraction of Europe, the blue states
> in the U.S., some significant parts of Africa (usually S.
> of the equator) .

As long as you can claim China, you may have a point. But don't
confuse the small citified numbers of urban Chinese with the vast
numbers in the foresaken countryside.

As for others you mention, e.g. the U.S., Europe, and Canada,
they're losing the demographic race. Extremely religious people
are being born faster than we're converting them.

It falls into just too clear a pattern:  religion exists and works
because it's an ESS.  Nontribalism is not, and unless very high
tech or a singularity saves us, nontribalism will be as quaint an
historical offshoot as the Skoptsy or other castration sects.

> The trick will be to shift things so one's near term survival interests
> tend to trump the more ethereal "promises".

Good luck shifting.  Any notable progress lately?  (Success getting
something printed in some transhumanist journal really doesn't count!)

> The human social and political components are the least well understood
> parts of Kurzweil's "Law of Accelerating Returns".  "We", for the most
> part, haven't even started the discussion of how fast we should go.

Yes, that sort of fantasizing (which hopefully is more that just fantasy) is
really fun.  I enjoy contemplating what I'll say to a GAI who tells me I've
been uploaded, and specifying what portion of my alloted resources will
go to running previous versions, running extremely IQ-advanced versions,
and so on.  Again, it can't be said too many times, they're all me.

> I tend to be more worried about a backlash against the Singularity than
> it not arriving soon enough.

They're both risky, like terrorism and states that try to over-protect against
terrorism.  Hell, life is risky.

But I agree:  forces, social and religious, that forestall a singularity threaten
my survival as much as a Singularity gone awry.  Both are very dangerous!
But at least I'm still alive.  For now.

Lee