[extropy-chat] Sasha is alive!

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Jan 03, 2007 at 09:05:15AM +0100, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:

> Eugen, I would say that *the particular mechanism" proposed by Tipler
> and based on a future big crunch has been falsified *on the basis of
> the currently available cosmological evidence*. Not the core concept

Tipler's was a tenuous construction already, since postulating an
ethics forecast of powers. There his eagerness to believe in a Deity
was especially apparent, and ruined the entire book by way of 
fact confabulation. But if you take away his predictions about 
retrocausality of the Omega boundary condition and nothing remains 
of the book's residual points. And that's a good thing, because
he built it that way.

(Unless, of course, you have an alternative theory of similiar predictive
power and falsifyability as Tipler's). 

> itself.
> I can relate to Kurzweil's "if the universe is open or closed will be
> for us to decide when the time is right".

I can't. Kurzweil is giving futurists a bad name in scientific circles.
His numbers are so doctored, they're not even wrong.

From what we currently know, our style is severely cramped by that
dark energy thing, which will make most of the even visible universe inaccessible
by way of runaway inflation. Which, of course, is our current knowledge.
Next week, or next decade I'll be quite thrilled to switch to a different
tune. But that time is not now. Anyone who's willing to firmly
claim otherwise is operating outside of the realm of science.

> I am the first to admit that this is idle speculation in absence of
> any hard fact or plausible theory, but sometimes also idle
> speculations can advance science in the sense of steering one's
> toughts on a certain path. Provided, of course, that one does not take
> speculations as facts.
> So I prefer remaining agnostic on this point and think "well, maybe".

I don't disagree with this at all. But I'm not willing to listen to
the "you might be immortal already, so you don't have to do anything,
halleluja" crowd, which don't really need any encouragement.

Which is why Sasha is dead, until proven otherwise. Which is why
people should look into life extension first, and cryonics second.
These are hard choices which are inconvenient (CR, lifestyle changes) 
and cost money (cryonics). Here Kurzweil at least walks the walk,
and not just talks the talk.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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