[ExI] Can the pope stop technological self-transformation?

[Mirco Romanato]

Bryan Bishop ha scritto:
> On Thursday 06 March 2008, Mirco Romanato wrote:
>> Bryan Bishop ha scritto:
>>> On Friday 29 February 2008, Damien Broderick wrote:
>>>>> What power? Money? They certainly don't have supercomputers,
>>>>> they don't have massive research institutions, they don't have 
>>>>> neurofarms, the only power they have is lots of listeners and a 
>>>>> widely distributed mental program. What does this power have to 
>>>>> do with transhumanism? 
>>>> Uh oh. Have you never heard of Stalin's famous contemptuous taunt:
>>>> "How many divisions does the Pope have?"
>>> No, I hadn't, but what difference does it make how many the Pope
>>> has?
>> The answer is "He has none, but he can take ours." (the Poles, the
>> Ukrainians....).
> 
> Ours are of the mind and our own bodies. Tell me, can he take our minds?

He can talk and he is listened by many.
Somebody is impervious to his talk and arguments, but many others are not.
In the Stalin case, the catholic poles, Ukrainians and others would do 
an undependable army that could not fight an aggressive war or worse, 
rebel or sabotage the struggle.

In the case of the Pope (and the Catholic Church), one of their main 
point is to be able to exploit the weakness of their adversaries.
If they are able to provoke a reaction that cast a bad light over their 
adversaries and a good one on them, they win.

Mirco
-- 
[Intangible capital is] the preponderant form of wealth.
When we look at the shares of intangible capital across income classes, 
you see it goes from about 60 percent in low-income countries to 80 
percent in high-income countries.
That accords very much with the notion that what really makes countries 
wealthy is not the bits and pieces, it's the brainpower, and the 
institutions that harness that brainpower.
It's the skills more than the rocks and minerals.
—Kirk Hamilton
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