[extropy-chat] Edge: Thank Goodness! By Daniel C. Dennett

[Lee Corbin]

Samantha writes

> [Lee wrote]
>> Europe is finished.  A Muslim civilization will replace it.
> 
> No way.  This is utter nonsense.  The Muslims can't manage to come  
> into the 21st century.  Science and technology is too hard to  
> reconcile with the faith, especially as it blends with law and  
> politics.  Without that the Muslims will never be strong enough to  
> prevail.

But in western democratic countries, all they need are votes.
And they're getting them, and already have many politicians
courting those votes.

In a contest between one side with higher tech but lower
willpower, the higher-technological, more sophisticated
side always wins IF the contest is brief.  But long contests
are historically always won by the side with greater will
power.  (E.g. America's difficulty winning in Iraq, Britain's
difficulty winning against Colonial America, etc., etc.)

>> But in North America, the situation is less clear.
>>
>> An elite in North America can continue to "run things"
>> for a very long time yet.  This is because as the class
>> structure of the country becomes more pronounced,
>> the lower classes shall respond to direction, just as
>> they do in Mexico today, whereas in Europe, the
>> Muslims have superior cohesion and superior will.
> 
> Really you think Muslims are superior?  In what way?  They band  
> together?  The threaten, kill and destroy when angered?  This is  
> superior in a way that matters in this time of accelerating change?   
> How so?

You could be right:  the technological changes could
come so soon and be so abrupt that you and I get
uploaded, and the reigning AIs of Earth parent the
Muslims as much as they parent you and me.

But if it doesn't happen soon, then it won't be the
first time that a more backward people overcame
a more advanced one (e.g. Mongols and China,
Huns and Romans, etc., etc.)

> The Muslims as Muslim statists are a dying culture
> unable to cope with the speed and type of changes
> around them.

Who says they're dying?  Look at Lebanon.  It used
to be Christian.  Not any more.  Look at France; soon
it'll go the way Lebanon did.

Lee