[ExI] The End of the Future

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Mon Oct 3 22:00:05 UTC 2011


On 3 October 2011 20:20, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> I had exactly the opposite reaction.  It struck me as a lot of bawwing and
> nothing on how to actually fix the problem.
>
> Analysis and introspection about the current situation, are only useful
> insofar as they point their way to solutions.  Analysis about how terrible
> everything is, conducted only for its own sake (and/or the emotional
> release from affirming that nothing oneself can do matters), is a form of
> masturbation.  Specifically, it is called "disasterbation".


Sure. But the first step is to realise that we do have a problem, and that
this problem is emphatically NOT that of preventing computronium planetary
entities to take over a little too abruptly for the personal taste of some
of us in the next five years  because our friend Ray Kurzweil have seen that
in some exponential crystal ball.

I think however that the "solution" implicit in Thiel's, and my, analyses is
pretty obvious.

Someone used to say that the right attitude is "pessimism of reason,
optimism of will". Unless transhumanist values manage to replace through a
deliberate action to this effect those dominant today, no posthuman change
is going to happen. Heck, not even an half-decent stagnation.

And a transhumanist society would be anywayt a much more pleasurable place
where to live for those who share my worldview even if a few of its dreams
actually failed to materialise, or, what is even more likely, would
materialise in a way rather different from that expected.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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