<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">It’s not the fish poop in the ocean that bothers me — it’s the people poop. <br><br><div dir="ltr">SR Ballard</div><div dir="ltr"><br>On Dec 18, 2019, at 1:04 PM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Sushi, sashimi, whatever. You know the oceans are an enormous toilet bowl. I'll eat raw fish when those creatures come on land to excrete.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Merry, Happy, and whatever to those with Winter blues, common around Xmas. May you have someone wonderful to meet under the mistletoe. bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 11:37 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Bill Hibbard <<a href="mailto:hibbard@wisc.edu" target="_blank">hibbard@wisc.edu</a>> <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
>...Merry Christmas Spike! And a happy, healthy 2020!... Meanwhile, do what<br>
you can and Merry Christmas!...<br>
<br>
Thanks Bill! Very much the same to you sir.<br>
<br>
I will put aside the overly introspective questions on the nature of "merry"<br>
and offer a perspective of our world today.<br>
<br>
Technological change is disrupting our world on many levels. One of our own<br>
former ExI posters, Julian Assange was pointing out 20 years ago in this<br>
forum that government power is enabled by secrecy, and that if the secrets<br>
were exposed corruption would be forced out. We are compelled to admit he<br>
has a valid point. It is becoming ever clearer the man was right on the<br>
money. China is locking down their societies (or attempting to.) But<br>
information wants to be free. The Chinese people can see what the Hong Kong<br>
people have, and they want that. Rather than trying to give that to a<br>
billion people, China's strategy is to stop the Chinese people from seeing<br>
what the Hong Kong people have. An alternative would be to take away the<br>
freedoms and material wealth the Hong Kong people have. I am very<br>
optimistic in the near-term outlook for China, for I suspect that once the<br>
genie of freedom is out of the bottle, the commies will be unable to stuff<br>
him back in.<br>
<br>
Anyone who is into astronomy can scarcely fail to be merry in our times.<br>
Those LIGO results continue to stream in and they seldom fail to amaze.<br>
Then that crazy weird 70 solar mass black hole, discovered right here in our<br>
own galaxy, by the Chinese of all things. How crazy is that? They<br>
discovered that black hole without even government command. How can a 70<br>
solar mass black hole have formed in this neighborhood?<br>
<br>
Medical technology marches on as it always has, but a most promising trend<br>
which has been steadily increasing for decades is the patient's access to<br>
his own test results. Any patient enabled with the understanding of how to<br>
access information has such a powerful tool set in gaining and maintaining<br>
health. A week ago today I landed in the hospital for the first time in my<br>
(long) life with a lung infection. The experience was most educational.<br>
Details available on request. The medics tell me I will live.<br>
<br>
My contact with young people fills me with both hope and fear on many<br>
levels. I commented earlier on Maslow's Hierarchy. When I was the age my<br>
Science Olympians are now, my peers and I were thinking of what menial job<br>
we might be able to land and our aspirations to break 3 dollars an hour,<br>
that sort of thing, down in the safety and comfort range. None of these<br>
young people, growing up in an ordinary middle-class setting, is anywhere<br>
other than right up at the top, diving deep on self-actualization. Think<br>
about how difficult it must me for them. They can't get any<br>
self-actualization from having climbed up that ladder, managing to escape<br>
dangerous neighborhoods and poverty. These poor souls don't even know they<br>
started at the top of Mazlow's Hierarchy! At the same time, some of them<br>
know not where their next meal is coming from. They might cruise Luigi's<br>
for pizza or the Outrageous Burrito, or of their posse so decides, they<br>
might end up at one of the old reliable standards such as Burger King or<br>
Taco Bell. Some are so poverty-stricken, they might be compelled to just go<br>
home and raid the refrigerator, unable to afford even basic sushi. They<br>
don't know where that next meal is coming from. Pitiful souls they are.<br>
But they are damn good at putting together a counterfeit science project on<br>
short notice. They know how to make those look really good, in just a<br>
coupla hours, completely devoid of any actual understanding of the topic at<br>
hand, but still look great doing it.<br>
<br>
I am thankful in a way for living when I do and being in the front row for<br>
the coming spectacle in the 2020 summer games, as our societies follow the<br>
logical path and recognize we could have easily anticipated male athletes<br>
vaguely pretending to be transgender, showing up wanting to compete in<br>
women's weightlifting, track, cycling etc. I don't know how that is going<br>
to play out, but I shall enjoy watching them struggle with the question.<br>
<br>
I do feel deep pity for those who must convince others how bad it all is.<br>
If their jobs require this for some reason, such as aspiring<br>
revolutionaries, it must be so frustrating to find that every oppressed<br>
faceless mass thinks he is going to be a millionaire. Even more frustrating<br>
to the revolutionary is knowing that many of these oppressed fools damn well<br>
might do so, in spite of the unfairness of it all. They are too stupid to<br>
be unhappy! Life must be so hard for revolutionaries today, with society<br>
all around them crushed by grinding prosperity.<br>
<br>
I do wish all of you the merriest of Christmas seasons. May your m approach<br>
1 and stay there as long as necessary to provide sufficient contrast next<br>
Christmas season when it must be again increased even artificially be<br>
chemical means. May my Extropian friends and their families enjoy a<br>
prosperous and healthy 2020.<br>
<br>
spike<br>
<br>
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