[ExI] the joy of now, was: RE: The very first question ...

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Darin Sunley
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2016 6:33 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] The very first question the press should ask Trump

 

>…When I think back to the Extropian and transhumanism movements as they were in the 90's, when I joined this list, and think about what's happened since then, It almost fills me with joy…

 

Thanks for this Darin.  With me it isn’t almost.  I am filled with joy when I ponder where our heads were in the 1990s and compare.  Back in those days, about 1994 when the internet was really starting up, when I started reading (but not yet posting to) Extropians, what kinds of things I was thinking.  I didn’t allow myself to believe the wilder things, fearing disappointment should it fail to appear.  Other areas I so underestimated, I am delighted completely.  For instance:

 

We talked a lot about some form of flying cars.  I know how to do the calcs on that, so I knew that no matter what, we were not going up, not on a daily individual basis.  No flying cars: inherent limitations in vertical take-off will always be with us, regardless of material advances.  So I knew that was going to be a no-show.  Check.  What I didn’t foresee was the stunning development of other technologies that would make high speed transportation less relevant now than it was 20 yrs ago.

 

We talked a lot about transparency.  Watching how one of our own took hold of this and created WikiLeaks has been a constant delight.  Watching its impact on government, astonishing, exhilarating.

 

We talked about advances in computing power.  That Moore’s Law continued as long as it did right up to near the atomic limit blows my mind.

 

We talked about future astronomy instruments, but back then I never would have dreamed we would build LIGO and have it find something immediately.  That one thing is a perfect example of something I just would not have believed, even if a deep booming voice had come from a clear sky, the kind of deep booming voice you just know doesn’t lie, telling me an instrument would be built and would find gravity waves.  I would have found the nearest bullhorn and pointed it back skyward and shouted NOOOOO WAAAAAY…  But it happened.

 

The real-money ideas futures: I just won a pile on this latest election.  It helps to remind oneself that betting is on what you believe is going to happen, not what you want to happen.  I did.  I won.

 

Brain prosthesis: well wait now, think about it.  We didn’t get an implantable device, but what we did get is in some ways better: these nifty little smart phones with internet and OK Google is pretty close to a brain prosthetic.  I would argue it is better in a way.  Suppose some yahoo invented a device you could surgically implant in your brain to get 20 additional IQ points.  Would I do it?  Probably not.  Why?  It would hafta be risky and expensive.  Brain surgery just isn’t going to be cheap and it isn’t going to be without major risks, no way.  At this point I might envy those who received one, but probably wouldn’t do it myself.  But I take my phone everywhere, and I use OK Google a lot.  

 

I took the cub scouts and joined a Veterans Day parade in San Jose today.  I used OK Google about a dozen times while I was out.  Cell phones are cheap and pose no risk at all.  I would argue this is a form of brain prosthetic that turned out better than 90s visions.

 

That the internet would become as effective a means of education for all has exceeded my grandest vision.  Now we all carry the world’s libraries in our pockets.

 

There is grandeur in this view of life.

 

spike

 

 

 

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