[ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>
> To: The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>; ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment
> 
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 9:57 AM, The Avantguardian
> <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>
>>> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>>> Cc:
>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 4:10 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment
> 
> Excellent point! From an information POV, this is pretty hard to
> argue. Of course, greater complexity does not always mean better. Most
> of the animals on this planet are just complex enough to manage their
> niche. Only Sapiens seems to have hyperevolved out of a single niche
> (unless you consider the entire inhabitable region of the planet to be
> our niche).

I can think of numerous creatures that have hyperevolved out of their niche. I have personally observed an entire population of very scrappy racoons thriving in the heart of the Los Angeles urban sprawl. They eat pigeons, garbage, dog food, that sort of thing. In any case, you would be suprised how often species change niches. The survivors do at any rate.

>>> So what is lost if we reach a state of paradise on earth? Everything.
>> 
>> Not if you reached a human paradise. Forget dreams of platonic perfection. 
> That with the capacity to evolve is far preferable to perfection for that which 
> is perfect is, by definition, finished. Find a way to live so that both you and 
> your neighbor can both be happy.
>> 
> 
> To my way of thinking "human paradise" is an oxymoron. I don't 
> think
> there ever will be a way for all neighbors to get along. It's just
> against the laws of physics. There will always be competition and
> friction. We can get out of it for a while by developing energy
> sources faster than our population grows, but eventually, we'll run
> short of energy (in it's various forms).

Not likely. If my work on the hydrodynamics of space-time is accurate, it would mean the universe is nothing but energy in a myriad of forms. And if we blow all our resources on fighting over the energy sources we understand instead of developing the ones we don't, we would have died of thirst in the middle of the ocean. That is a sad fate for me and my kind. 
 
Stuart LaForge
 
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson