[ExI] The Manifesto of Italian Transhumanists

John Grigg possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com
Sun Mar 2 15:46:13 UTC 2008


Bryan Bishop wrote:
Just to make sure, you do understand that I am not dismissive of
religions at all, merely in terms of making "transhumanism" a reality,
such as making futurist technologies realized, since *not* paying
attention to religion does not influence the bottomline technicality of
the technologies involved. Otherwise, it's an amazing cultural
phenomena and much more.
>>>

Not paying attention to religion may not influence the
bottomline *technicality* of a technology.  But in terms of the actual
*successful development* of a technology, you need generally a combination
of political, corporate, academic and financial support.  The "amazing
cultural phenomena" you describe, if it turns against you (stem cell
research vrs. the Bush Administration, for instance), results in a definite
slowing or stopping of potentially life saving medical technology.

And even though the research and development would continue in other
nations, the U.S. would then be at a serious disadvantage to be a leader in
the biotech field and reap the financial harvest.  And remember that it's
just plain "un-American" to not make tons of money and dominate
technological progress! lol

you continue:
No matter how much they proclaim to be against a possibility does not
determine that bottom line of feasability. Yes, they can protest, yes,
they can try to stone us, they can try to burn us alive, but you see,
we can diffuse the information over the internet, and good luck warring
against the internet. It will route around the damage.
>>>

But warring against research labs and those who fund them in another matter,
entirely.  It generally takes serious money and disciplined scientific teams
to tease out Mother Nature's secrets.

you continue:
I saw Greg Bear on television a few months ago, he was surprised that
there wasn't more high school students doing biotech and related
engineering yet, and he's right that it will probably change pretty
soon. I should go get the book. Sounds interesting.
>>>

I think part of the problem may be that highschool chemistry teaching has
fallen into such disrepair.  "Oh, no, we can't trust the kids to not blow
themselves up!" lol  In chemistry people learn the joy of
scientific investigation.

A fairly large percentage of the grad students and postdocs in U.S. research
labs are foreign nationals.  While I think some "intellectual capital
cross-pollination" is a very good thing, I believe the United States may be
nearing a "Sputnik crisis" level of potential uneasiness if we do not get
*many more* of our young people into science research
related advanced degree programs.  It may take several decades to fully see
the destructive effect of this on the U.S. economy in terms of global
competitiveness.  And by the time we try to really turn things around we may
have lost some critical advantages that might never be fully regained.

In terms of national security (and economic strength is a foundation of
military strength) and a having a powerful and effective armed forces, the
U.S. in my view needs to be much more careful in terms of who does
scientific research in our labs and who can gain access to our
technological trade secrets.  I think we should only let in foreign
nationals that are from nations which do not have longterm plans to take our
spot as the definitive world superpower.  I cringe to think of all the
knowledge & power which is leaked out to potentially hostile foreign
competitors because we are so dependent on researchers not from our native
country.

We groom all these brilliant young researchers to only have them go home and
make their home nation much more competitive, economically and sometimes
militarily.  I realize we get short term benefits out of their efforts here
but I see it as short term gain for long term loss.  Now, regarding a nation
truly friendly to us, I say it is our ethical duty to help them and enrich
the skills of their research scientists.  But we must be careful.

An FBI agent once noted that with scientific knowledge so diffused now,
foreign intelligence gatherers can find out so much by simply reading
various scientific journals and other very public sources of information.
They just have to "put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together" to
find what they are searching for in the oceans of information around them.
The example was given of a new U.S. naval submarine innovation, which to the
horror of the U.S. military, was found to have "all the pieces" for it's
reproduction scattered around academia and various journals.  Someone just
needed to be patient as they hunted for each piece, which could later be
used to "assemble the puzzle."

We are in a race to develop whatever the next generation of
technological innovations are that we must have to stay not just
competitive, but ahead of the rest of the world.  And yes, we do have our
top secret military labs that surely have incredible security and well
vetted researchers, but the tech that feeds those places comes generally
from corporate and academic America.  It will be carefully nurtured and
protected technological progress that will maintain our economic
strength, and this must be protected every bit as much as some state of the
art new weapons system.

Nationalism is a two-edged sword.  On the one side it can cause healthy
competition among developed nations to make rapid progress in key
technologies that would potentially change our lives for the better.  I am
very grateful for this (would you want a powerful world government that had
a negative view of biotech research and passed laws in effect *everywhere*
to enforce their stance?, lol)  But on the other hand, nationalism can cause
extreme over-competitiveness, which leads to wars, both cold and hot.

you continue:

On that note, who the hell are you supposed to call if you get locked up
in Gitmo? Not just any regular lawyer, surely. A super lawyer, perhaps?

>>>

Why, you get whatever legal defense your military tribunal decides to assign
you...  ; )


John
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