[ExI] Singularity

[Samantha Atkins]

On Nov 15, 2010, at 3:09 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:

> On 14 November 2010 19:28, Aleksei Riikonen <aleksei at iki.fi> wrote:
>> Who's going for "listening to prophets"? Serious people like Nick
>> Bostrom and the SIAI present actual, concrete steps and measures that
>> need to be taken to minimize risks.
> 
> Once more, I have no doubt that SIAI or Bostrom  are (even too)
> serious. My point is simply that we are entitled  to a more serious
> discussion of what would be a "risk" and why we should consider it so.

IMHO opinion there has perhaps been too much focus on "existential risk" at the cost of insufficient focus on clearly visioning the positive future we wish to bring into being.   I feel at times as if much of our energy has become focused on the negative and we have lost sight of or failed to sufficiently embrace the positive.    It is much easier generally to see what is wrong or may turn out wrong than to cleanly imagine a positive outcome and work diligently to bring it about.   From talking with many transhumanists it does not seem that we have that clear and coherent a shared vision of the desired future.   If not then how can we can we expect to work together to bring it about?   We have many shared dream fragments but that is not enough for a coherent vision.

- s