[ExI] AI-generated music videos

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Ben
Zaiboc via extropy-chat
...
>>... Now this AI comes along, and shows us how it would look.  People are 
> happy and healthy.  Well, isn't that what we humans struggle to do?  
> Find ways to make people happy and healthy?


>...Have you heard the Talking Heads song 'Heaven'? (it's on the album 'Stop
Making Sense'):

"Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens"

>...Thinking about what the traditional western religions present heaven as
being like, this would be exactly the result. I don't think that humans
strive for stagnation, even if it's happy stagnation. I think we want and
need stimulation, change, and progress. I always used to wonder about the
traditional concept of hell, and how bonkers it is. Heaven is no less
bonkers when you think about it.

>...You say "... isn't that what we humans struggle to do? ...", and I think
that's true. /What/ we struggle to do, though, is less important than the
struggle itself. It's a successful struggle that gives us joy. Attainment
without struggle would be disappointing. Look how happy most lottery winners
are after about six months.

>...What gives you the most happiness, solving a difficult engineering
problem, or knowing that you solved one in the past?

>...I suppose everyone's a bit different, and maybe there are people who
would genuinely enjoy an endless mindlessly happy status quo, but to me,
status quo = death. Transhumanism isn't about striving to attain a better
state and then staying there, it's about endless improvement. Once you're
happy with everything, it's time to die, because there's nothing else to
strive for. You might as well be in heaven.

---
Ben

_______________________________________________


Ja OK that makes sense.  

In the past coupla weeks, I have been over at the assisted living, a big
complex, four floors, lotsa elderly, senile people.  There are about 340
apartments in there.  They haul somebody out of there on a stretcher nearly
every week.  The ambulance comes in, usually with sirens and blinkity
blinkers, so when the residents hear it, they wander down to see if it is
one of their friends.  Often there is weeping and wailing.

Ben with that as my most recent experience, interacting with hollow shells
of humans, living corpses really, it may better explain why I liked the
country music video with Cheshire cat girl and her grandmother.  I
completely understand why fellers fall in love with AI-driven avatars, even
knowing they aren't real.  They opt for the imaginary domain instead of
their own empty lonely world.  I understand.

spike