[ExI] Did Hugo de Garis leave the field?

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Wed May 4 17:04:04 UTC 2011


On 2 May 2011 11:11, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> On Mon, May 02, 2011 at 01:19:05AM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:
> > Since 1971? So the personal computer,
>
> The microcomputer has been around since 1970 (the IC is even
> earlier), and it has no fundamental architectural differences
> from the mini, nor the mini from the mainframe.
>
> > Internet, cell phone, laser
>
> Packet-switching is 1968. Mobile phone is 1973.
>
> > printers, none of that constitutes a paradigm shift?
>


> Laser is 1960, laser printer is 1969.
>

Yes, exactly my point.

But even more importantly, the science behind all that is almost entirely
concentrated around the turn of the century - that is, the *XX* century, not
the current one.

*This* qualifies as a paradigm shift in my opinion.

The last fifty years appear in retrospect more similar to the developments
having taken place from 1750 to 1800.

A lot of nifty new gadgets, yes. Radically game-changing discoveries? No.

And personally, I am concerned about the latter, and think transhumanism is
about the effort to identify and implement what is culturally and socially
required to allow for a coming back of historical and epistemological
incandescence...

In the meantime, let us be happy that thank to that grand past not all
momentum is (still) lost, and that the Project Human Genome or the Large
Hadron Collider managed to be completed much later than the "heroic" days of
the respective sciences.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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