[extropy-chat] 'a process of non-thinking called faith' 2

[ben]

"Robert Bradbury" <robert.bradbury at gmail.com> wrote:

[me]
>> I though this was a rather odd thing for a transhumanist to say. 
>> Don't you expect your ability to make good judgements to improve in
>>  the future?

> I'm not sure
 > ...
> It forces me into a position of giving up my "position" so as to 
> effectively become equivalent to the the AGI (where the past me is 
> probably becoming a microfraction of myself at an extremely rapid 
> rate)

OK, we all fall under the 'tranhumanist' umbrella, but that seems to
embrace some radically different stances.

"climbing the curve at the limits imposed by the laws of physics"
"The past me becoming a microfraction of myself at an extremely rapid rate"

They sound like the kind of thing that would be eminently desirable to
me. I see the current me as little more than a foetus, comparatively
speaking, in terms of intelligence, understanding, ability (including
the ability to make 'good judgments'), etc. I certainly don't want to
stay that way. I want to grow up!

As somebody once said "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are
looking at the stars".
I find it odd that you personally seem to expect or want to 'stay in the
gutter', if i understand you right.


Then BillK <pharos at gmail.com> said:

> Certainly, if transhumans just think 'faster', then they won't 
> necessarily think any 'better' or 'differently' than at present. They
>  will just reach the same poor conclusions a bit quicker.
> 
> Some might suggest that extra processing speed would enable 
> transhumans to take more factors into account in their
> decision-making and thus make better decisions. But while that is
> true, it won't actually happen unless some form of mental training in
> how to think logically is also added. This seems to be assumed in a
> lot of discussion about transhumans. That by some magic, these
> superhumans will be really nice and moral and care for the poor
> ordinary humans left behind. Whereas it seems just as likely to me
> that they will be equally as brutal and nasty as ordinary humans
> given a bit more power.
> 
> Leap twenty years ahead and we might have transhumans that can watch 
> the ball game, read a comic, listen to rap music, chat to their 
> friends, trade on ebay, plagiarise an essay for college work,
> schedule social activities, etc. all at the same time. That's
> progress for you.


Wow.

This is really pessimistic.
If that's what we're headed for, what's the point?

I mean, it's possible that there is nothing beyond our current mental
horizons (i don't believe it, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible),
but i'd sure like to find out.

Do you really think that our future is just 'bigger bananas'?

Won't we be entering a new arena, where the things that lead humans to
be brutal and nasty have been overcome? I'm not saying post-humans will
be automatically super-benevolent, but at least the rules of the game
should change so much that the game becomes something different
altogether. I should imagine that ball games, comics and rap music would
have about as much appeal (and relevance) as catching termites with a
stick has for us now.

ben zaiboc