[ExI] 1984

John Clark jonkc at bellsouth.net
Tue Jan 26 22:22:49 UTC 2010


On Jan 26, 2010,  Stefano Vaj wrote:

> I suspect that it would be fair to consider *this* Huxley and his
> book as anti-transhumanist themselves, since in the Brave New World
> there is no real alternative

Huxley pointed out a very real problem, there may be an alternative but Huxley didn't write about it because he didn't know what it was, and neither do I. The problem he described may just be as profound as profound can be.

> Sure, because in it if you are a member of the internal party are at
> least under the illusion of that you are doing something meaningful

But in 1984 the "meaningful" thing you are doing, as party members freely admit, is causing more pain to exist in the world. No, I'd rather live in the Brave New World!

> The lack of any sense whatsoever is what makes the Brave New World
> especially frustrating, including for its reader.

There is meaning in Brave New World, the pursuit of happiness; but that's it, nothing else. And that's just not enough to build Jupiter Brains and engineer the universe, or even the galaxy. I hope I'm wrong but that may be the reason we don't observe an engineered cosmos. Still, an eternity of lowbrow bliss may not be ideal but it beats the hell out of 1984.

 John K Clark
 

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