[extropy-chat] What Human Minds Will Eventually Do (was String Theory)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 10:54:17AM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:

> People, of course, will be able to choose what is boring

Why is everybody talking about just people? What about
the eqivalents of viruses, bacteria, nematodes, insects,
rodents, deities?

> to them. It won't be "natural" anymore, which, yes, I admit,
> is hard to get used to.  But surely even before 1968 ("Do
> Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") SF writers considered
> that future tech would allow us to control our emotions
> directly.

I don't think this is a reasonable future. It looks
too much like our present.
 
> Will people really *choose* to be interested in games?
> Why???  Instead, I have postulated that in the very long
> run---assuming that physics gets worked out comparatively
> rapidly---only two activities remain, however unpalatable
> they now seem to most people now:  mathematics and
> gratification research.

What about pointless stuff we're doing now? Games, art,
socializing? How can a mouse do math research? Why
should I do math research if I can start a war instead,
or do <wr54334543>?
 
> Mathematics is provably infinite in complexity, and surely
> people will still want to enjoy life. There you have it.

I would like a proper mathematical proof of that, please.
 
> Perhaps studying how to enjoy ourselves ought to be broken
> down further, because the principle way that this is achieved
> is to become more advanced, and so thereby more capable of
> benefit.
> 
> Space exploration and colonization (i.e. expansion) will be
> long since automated. After all, the idea is pretty simple:

Automation doesn't exist in a solid state culture. It's just an 
ecological niche. Automation is old cyber-think.

> bring as much life to the lifeless cosmos as quickly as
> possible.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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