[extropy-chat] How are we going to do this?

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Fri Jun 11 00:24:33 UTC 2004


--- Michael Howell <vanmojo at msn.com> wrote:
>    I wasn't talking about the difficulty of
> developing the technology, merely of buying it.

Yep.  But if you develop some part of the tech, you
can get enough money from that to buy the rest.

>     The problem I see is not that they see it as
> unfair but that the hole idea of pushing back
> boundaries on human potential; be they intellectual,
> physical, or in the realm of human lifespan, is
> wrong.

That's what they say.  It makes a comfortable
rationalization.  But watch what happens in most cases
when former opponents of a technology realize they,
personally, stand to benefit a lot from it.  (Which
includes having had the "it's too difficult/too
expensive for me to play with" problem solved.)  For
one good example, look at access to the 'Net under
repressive governments: people might officially tout
the party line, but only those who stand to lose power
(the government itself) actually try to restrict the
tech.

They say power corrupts.  In this case, that's a good
thing.

>      Robert Anton Wilson said that the only real way
> to change human behavior on a large scale is to
> introduce a new technology. My BEST hope currently
> is that the Singularity will introduce such a
> technology, probably in the realm of intelligence
> amplificaition.

Why wait for the Singularity?  Why not take action to
develop and introduce humanity-augmenting technology
today?  (As, for instance, with the SIAI: trying to
ensure that the first AI that comes about won't cause
bad ends for us.)  We're here, and the Singularity
isn't (yet).



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