[extropy-chat] Retraining (was: Turbulence of obsolesence)

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Sat Apr 23 09:47:15 UTC 2005


On 4/22/05, Adrian Tymes wrote:
>  
> My choice of words here is deliberate.  I know I do not have a solid
> answer to this question.  There is even a possibility I may be wrong,
> and that most of humanity (the portion that becomes untrainable in
> older years) is doomed by the technologies we advocate to become
> obsolete, crippled, and miserable.  But that fate is far from a sure
> thing, unless people in general give up without trying (in which case
> it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy).  I do know that, if there is
> any chance to save most of humanity from that fate, the only way is for
> people to try.
> 
> (There were also concerns about the specific new technologies that
> people can transition to.  I could attempt to list them, but that would
> be self-defeating.  Anyone who has concerns about them can google
> around; there are more than any one of us knows, and each person will
> find different careers more appealing.  Any attempt to promote one or a
> few specific technologies or careers as the solution to everyone's
> problems will probably fail for more people.)
> 

Surely extended life and nano-Santa will arrive about the same time?
The end of the work ethic because there will be no jobs left. A life
of playing golf and watching ball games beckons.
One wit has said "The worst thing about dying is not knowing who will
win next year's major league".   :)
This is similar to why I gave up competitive chess as a hobby when I
realised that ordinary pcs could play better than me. It just didn't
feel like all the study and practice required was worth doing. So
sure, humans can be playful amateurs at every skill, but if you want
it done properly, you will get a machine to do it.

This may be a temporary phase until human enhancement sweeps through,
'improving' mankind. But the machines will be' improving' faster than
mankind - unless humans become the machines.

The other worry about enhancing humanity is that Jef is happy to
assume that an enhanced Jihad warrior will stop being a Jihad warrior.
'Oh, silly me. I must try and stop all this hating the infidel
nonsense'.  Similarly, the hope is that an enhanced white supremist
will stop hating other races. While this is all very nice, it sounds
very much like Jef wants 'enhancement' to change them into completely
different people with everyone becoming nice Disneyworld people.  This
sounds rather unlikely to me. The terrible destructive power that will
be available to individuals seems to make a type of hive mind
inevitable - for its own protection. The wild individuals will have to
be controlled lest they destroy everything.

BillK



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