[extropy-chat] Reality creation, fragmentation and justification

[Robert Bradbury]

For a long time I used to operate on the basis of there being 3 realities.
First, the physical (abstract) reality governed by the laws of physics which
is rather (cough) weird when you start thinking about things like wave
particle duality, space-time, multiverses, etc.  Second, the shared (world)
reality governed by what people generally agree on it being between the
instantiations of conscious entities.  Third, my personal reality (i.e. the
society of mind bouncing around inside the wetware typing this message).

Lately I've become more aware of the range of shared realities.  Everything
from the political right vs. left realities, the fundamentalist Christian &
Muslim realities, the Raelian reality, the current and forthcoming virtual
realities (esp. MMORPGs [1] one of which is SecondLife), etc.  One thing
which is striking to me is the extent to which these realities seem to have
relatively little awareness of one another.  The reality of retired people
in their 70's and 80's overlaps little or none with the Raelian reality
which in turn overlaps little or none with the MMORPG realities [2].

What prompted this note is an attempt to effectively "manage" the reality of
a significant fraction of the population on the planet [3].  Do they just
not "get" it (information will be free) or are they simply trying to stick
their finger in the dam as long as possible?

Also, it raises the question in my mind as to whether Extropianism or
Transhumanism have any significant hope due to the lack of a breakout into
the dominant realities [4]?  There also appears to be a significant lack of
discussion with respect to what will happen as the emerging realities
*break* the old realities (paradigm breaking) [5].  The old strategy (found
particularly in science) of the older generation dying off allowing the new
generation's perspective to take hold isn't going to work when the emerging
paradigm allows the old reality proponents to keep going and going and
going...  Given the speedup in the rate of change one would expect due to
the singularity, how exactly is one going to deal with the fact that our
inherited genetics and biochemistry makes most of us quite resistant to
adopting new realities?  Will humanity fragment in such a way that the old
realities keep going and going and going? [6].

Robert

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MMORPGs
2. It is interesting to note the penetration of specific organizing
"attractors" -- MMORPGs in Korea, MySpace among teenagers, Facebook among
college communities, Orkut in Brazil, various TV stations (or leaders) for
Christian, Muslim and perhaps political followers, etc.
3. China to Control Reports of Foreign News Agencies
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/12/064219
4. "AI" has been around as a concept for 40+ years (though lacked the
hardware to support it before "now").  Feynman's lecture was 47 years ago.
Engines of Creation was published 20 years ago this year, etc.
5. Concepts involving lifespan extension, uploading and indefinite longevity
clearly break the traditional mindsets of Christian and Muslims.
6. This gets back to my sustainability philosopy and resource optimization
questions.  *What* does one do when a significant fraction of resources are
devoted to something completely pointless (say maintaining the
fundamentalist Christian or Muslim realities?).  Is there a concept of
eminent domain [7] for belief systems, philosophies or realities?
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
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