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At 04:57 AM 12/17/2007, Natasha wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">At 10:01 PM 12/16/2007,
-samantha wrote:</blockquote><br>
snip<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">>I think I need a bit of
translation of the question to begin to answer<br>
>it. Since I presume NBIC advances are essential to
arriving at<br>
>actual transhumans and posthumans I don't see how
"affect" is quite<br>
>the right word since these states require NBIC
advances. </blockquote><br>
snip<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">In my research, posthumanism has
claimed the environment in which <br>
future humans are concerned. Since I do not agree with the academic
<br>
interpretation of posthumanism*, it is my research responsibility to
<br>
develop a different perspective on this environment.<br><br>
*The posthumanism interpretation is based on cybernetics and <br>
disembodiment. There is no depth regarding biotechnology and <br>
nanotechnology, for example. Further, the concept of
"continued <br>
existence" or "regenerative existence" is not the motor
driving this <br>
realm, nor is it a desired state or goal.</blockquote><br>
For reasons involving the cube/linear problem discussed early today, I
don't agree with Jupiter brains. But I have found it hard to find
serious holes in cybernetics and disembodiment.<br><br>
I am motivated to do so because I am a matter chauvinist. I have a
(probably irrational) dislike for putting my "state vector"
through an optical fiber. In spite of my distaste for such a
future, my honest estimate for the post singularity population of
_physical state_ humans is zero. :-( <br><br>
Since characters from such an era are impossible to identify with, I had
to generate some fairly implausible scenarios for a novel I was working
on prior to the recent disruption in my life. In the unfinished
novel (for essentially irrational reasons) the powers that be--whoever
and whatever they are--stopped the population collapse just before it
winked out, at under 1%. It varied by continent, Africa's physical
state population was measured in a few hundred at most.<br><br>
Some of you have read chapter 2 of the novel, which is a stand alone
story about what caused the population collapse in Africa. It's on
the web here:<br>
<a href="http://www.terasemjournals.org/GN0202/henson.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.terasemjournals.org/GN0202/henson.html</a><br><br>
The rest is still in draft, but if some of you want to see it, I can
email the first 5 chapters (less chapter 2 which is replace by a pointer
to the above). I would appreciate corrections and comment, but you
don't have to.<br><br>
As for NBIC,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology">Nanotechnology</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology">Biotechnology</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology">Information
technology</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science">Cognitive
science</a> (see
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies">Emerging
technologies</a>) <br><br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies</a><br><br>
<b>Emerging technologies</b> and <b>converging technologies</b> are terms
used interchangeably to cover the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence">emergence</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_convergence">
convergence</a> of new and potentially disruptive
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology">technologies</a> such
as
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology">nanotechnology</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology">biotechnology</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science">cognitive
science</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotics">robotics</a>, and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence">artificial
intelligence</a>. <br><br>
I don't see any way to prevent the whole complex from coming about.
Nanotechnology if it comes first will supply the brute force to develop
AI. AI, if it comes first, would be used solve the hard problems of
getting to nanotechnology. Biotechnology is just naturally evolved
nanotechnology.<br><br>
As for robotics, few people have any idea of how far it has gone.
It has been decades since a human *could* design a modern microprocessor
without the help of previous generations of computers. The same is
true for gene sequencing and synthesizing. And the amount of
processing it takes to do fMRI . . . .<br><br>
Keith<br><br>
PS. I am an engineer of wide experience, electronic design,
geophysics, programming. Have worked across a wide cross section of
industry, oil refineries, copper concentrators--smelters, production
lines up to the ones that built railroad locomotives. Been thinking
about an NBIC future since Eric Drexler clued me in 1979, but that does
not mean I am right. You are welcome to pick holes in my logic, I
have changed my ideas more than once and don't fear changing them
again.<br><br>
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