[ExI] Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

spike spike66 at att.net
Fri Aug 28 20:24:30 UTC 2015



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of Keith Henson
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 12:55 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 5:00 AM,  "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

snip

>...Spike, there is a decent chance that the Fermi question will be answered
within your lifetime.

>...Either we find evidence of aliens, or whatever happens to them happens
to us...Keith
_______________________________________________



Ja Keith I fear you are right on.

There has been a lot of recent talk about how neurosis and creativity are
linked.  I offered a similar idea to that being promoted today, but called
it the featherbed model: comfortable people don't create much, uncomfortable
ones do.  Neurosis is uncomfortable, so neurotics create.  They are always
thinking, wondering what to do to get more comfortable, like the homeless
person sleeping on the park bench is uncomfortable; she squirms a lot.

The silence of the cosmos is making me damn uncomfortable, and I am thinking
a lot on how to solve this psychological park bench I am on.  I know that my
current understanding of the universe doesn't explain it; I know that even
singularity theory doesn't explain it (it helps (but post-singularity
societies should want to expand (and I see no evidence they have (ja?))))  I
am using some of my most creating thinking these days to try to resolve
this, but I am no closer to getting comfortable than the homeless person on
that hard old park bench.

It could be something simple, such as advanced societies consistently fail
to make the transition to renewable energy, so they all end up fighting over
dwindling concentrated energy sources.  Or the really smart minority
persistently get out-bred, so the population's collective intelligence and
drive gradually dissipates like a mist in the cloudless spring dawn.

I don't know Keith.  I worry.

spike






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