[ExI] "Animal-monitoring modules"?

[Mike Dougherty]

On 9/29/07, hkhenson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> I have produced a model, the short form being that detection of bleak
> times a-coming turns up the gain in individuals (and thus the
> population as a whole) for xenophobic, often religious, memes.  This
> evolved mechanism is still with us in times of machine guns and
> nuclear weapons.  It should account (in some measure) for most if not all wars.

I read once that the xenophobic meme phase seems to coincide with
escapist fatasy being a popular entertainment genre.  When there is
less fear, science fiction becomes more prevalent in entertainment.
With that in mind (without rigorous proof) I was considering the
recent thread about responsible singularity PR.

Do we think entertainment media can/should be used to prepare the
general public to accept a higher level of technological possibility?