[extropy-chat] Yesterday's Seminar on Transhumanism and Religion in Second Life

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, May 01, 2007 at 11:47:45AM +0100, BillK wrote:

> You can always hope.

Hope for what? That it happens, or that it doesn't happen?

> Sounds like a big dose of wishful thinking to me.

Evolutionary theory sounds like wishful thinking to you? Really.
 
> The point is that evolution doesn't have sufficient time to react.

An argument is missing here.

> The loners will be the 'Amish' in a future society.

The point is that these 'Amish' will inherit the universe. As
to the solipsists, well, you won't ever meet any. These self-select
into invisibility.
 
> And in your scenario, you still have to answer the question,
> 'Where are they?'.  Even at sub-light speeds they should be all over
> our galaxy by now.

You've just answered your own questions. If they're not here, they're
not anywhere. In fact, they *are* here. Look into the mirror.

> We might be the first, or only, in our galaxy, but answering the
> question means deciding between a range of unlikely choices.

No, it means that there is at least one coefficient in the Drake
equation which is pretty damn close to zero.

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