[ExI] the 1 to 10 game, was: RE: Then and still Now (was Re: bees again)

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Mike Dougherty
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 6:00 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: [ExI] Then and still Now (was Re: bees again)

 

2012/2/7 spike <spike66 at att.net>

>>.As with most of us.  We achieved a fraction of our potential, because so
much of our time growing up was spent being babysat by the television.  The
content had approximately zero socially redeeming qualities back in those
days.

>.And it has more now?!?  Honestly, I don't feel that for all of our
exponential increase in the rate of change that things are all that much
different.The details may be 30+ years different, but people's "trending"
feels the same.   .Sorry Spike, this rant really is out of nowhere (at least
I changed the subject line).  I considered discarding rather than sending,
but I wondered if anyone else shares this nagging sense...

 

 

Mike, go with me on this flight of fancy, a thought experiment please.

 

Picture some area in life which you really care about, such as your favorite
hobby or pastime, your foremost interest, your passion.  If you are a foodie
for instance, play this game.  Imagine the worst possible world for a foodie
(ignoring starvation for the purposes of this exercise) and assign that as 1
on a scale of 1 to 10.  The beans and cold greasy tater tots they threw at
you at summer camp is 1, that revolting tripe that you ate because that's
what was there and you were starving, or perhaps those desiccated hotdogs
that have been revolving for the past four days on the freeway gas station
ZippyMart.  That's 1.  Now imagine the very best you can do if you have a
ton of money: a standing army of the best chefs from all over the world,
ready to fix you anything you want on demand, as often as you want, anytime
day or night, a team of world class chefs working for you alone.  Assign
that as 9.  That's the best you can do with today's tech with arbitrarily
large amounts of money.  Reserve 10 as whatever is better than that: you can
have better food than we know how to make today, but you don't get fat.

 

You like motorcycles?  1 is a rattly old moped that doesn't run right.  9 is
a warehouse full of every bike ever made, all of them yours, exotics,
monster-bikes, a collection that would put Jay Leno's to shame, a collection
that would give you a major boner, that's 9.  10 is better than that,
somewhere beyond current technology, but if you heard it described, you
would get it and you would want it.  The bikes go faster than anything
today, but handle so well you never crash, and you ride like the wind.

 

Other examples, suppose you are a connoisseur of feminine beauty.  1 is,
well, use your imagination, and 9 is Hugh Hefner's life: willing an nubile
beauties everywhere, as many as money can buy.  10 is better than that.  An
example of 10: you can have Ingrid Bergman in 1943 trim, or be on the
receiving end of those loving gazes Julie Andrews gave Captain Von Trapp in
1964, or Kina Grannis in her current form, and neither your mate or their
mates are bothered, for it's your thought experiment, and they don't care
what you do in your own mind.

 

So that's the game, pick your favorite thing in this life, or something you
really care about, set 1 equal to terrible, 9 is as good as it gets today,
and 10 is better.

 

Nowthen, take your entire life and imagine going from 1 to 10 in that time
span in that area which you really care about and is your passion.  That
would be defined as a damn good life, ja?  That would be a life in which you
have it made and you know it clap your hands.

 

My passion in life has been learning stuff, access to information.  Since I
am one whose life passion and interest is information gathering, I am one of
the fortunate few who has seen a 1 to 9 transition, but I can do one better.
>From the point of view of just 20 years ago, my current world is a 10,
because what I have right in front of me now is beyond anything I could have
done in 1990, regardless of how much money I had, because we didn't have the
web in those days.  Earlier this evening when I started wondering about
alternate pollinators, all I had to do is go into Google, type in alternate
pollinators bees, and BOOM, everything I wanted to know is right there.  I
compare with my bee book, for which I traded a day's wage at that time, a
very thick book filled with information it is, a fine book.  But it is
nothing compared to what I can find in seconds on the internet.

 

Twenty years ago is fresh enough in my memory.  I used to haunt libraries,
just being an information pacman, browsing on random stuff.  But now is so
much better.  So we don't have flying cars and high speed rail.  No problem,
I don't need to go anywhere anyways.  What I want to do is right here.

 

Mine has been a 1 to 10 life, and life is good.

 

spike

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