I want to laugh at this comment, but it's difficult -- not because I think you'd make a good sociopath, but because the system, now as a century ago, rewards sociopaths. What else do you call the people who crashed the economy, took all the bailout cash, and are now living higher on the hog than ever, while the last of the middle class dissolves into penury? And they aren't doing Bond-villain things -- none of them has a great big plan for reshaping the world as we know it, they just want to protect and expand their wealth. As John Robb says (I am becoming such a fanboy of that dude) global capitalism is "morally neutral", which means that humanity has created an artificial system that's as callous as the unfriendly universe it found itself in when it first awakened to sentience. Good job, naked apes. :)
Anyway, along with our hilariously inadequate response to the end of cheap fossil energy, the entropically predatory nature of contemporary global capitalism has pretty much done for my Singularitarian dream. Now I'm hoping to be a small part of making something that doesn't suck on the local level. "Doesn't suck", of course, being kind of subjective.
And yeah, it was very cool to run into you at FC. Do drop me a line if you make it up to the PNW -- it would be fun to have that conversation.
Sadly, I had no idea who John Robb was, so I did a bit of Googling and now have reading material for later!
In all seriousness, I haven't exactly given up on my dreams, but I've definitely given up on the idea of Singularitarianism - what a mouthful! - as Kurzweil and others have defined it, because I don't think it is going to pass that the Singularity will involve everyone at an equal level, and in fact most humans won't be viewed as partners at all. No, most humans will get ground up in it or used as fodder for... something.
The Singularity may not be for everyone, but everyone will be for the Singularity, whether or not everyone is for the Singularity.
(An aside: As Vernor Vinge pointed out, maybe it's not such a great idea to build a transcendent intelligence using “tooth and claw” as the basis - flesh has too many ingrained instincts and emotional failings.)
Anyway, in all the bullshit I was blathering about above, there's one signal in the noise. I guess I'm trying to say that it's OK to dream big, bigger than the local level. Maybe those dreams are delusional, but they can be helpful. They can carry us through.
And just because I can laugh at my own cognitive blinders sometimes, I actually tried doing a Google search on “PNW convention” because I overlooked the definite article in front of PNW, thus not realizing it was just a generic abbreviation for the geographic region you're now in. That got me some interesting hits, including a convention dedicated to people who were recovering addicts. (Somehow, that just didn't seem right...)
But yeah, it just so happens I have other friends who live up that way, so if I visit them, I'll be dropping you guys a line as well.
...now you're making me want to get more writing done again. And I don't mean blogging...
I want to laugh at this comment, but it's difficult -- not because I think you'd make a good sociopath, but because the system, now as a century ago, rewards sociopaths. What else do you call the people who crashed the economy, took all the bailout cash, and are now living higher on the hog than ever, while the last of the middle class dissolves into penury? And they aren't doing Bond-villain things -- none of them has a great big plan for reshaping the world as we know it, they just want to protect and expand their wealth. As John Robb says (I am becoming such a fanboy of that dude) global capitalism is "morally neutral", which means that humanity has created an artificial system that's as callous as the unfriendly universe it found itself in when it first awakened to sentience. Good job, naked apes. :)
Anyway, along with our hilariously inadequate response to the end of cheap fossil energy, the entropically predatory nature of contemporary global capitalism has pretty much done for my Singularitarian dream. Now I'm hoping to be a small part of making something that doesn't suck on the local level. "Doesn't suck", of course, being kind of subjective.
And yeah, it was very cool to run into you at FC. Do drop me a line if you make it up to the PNW -- it would be fun to have that conversation.
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Sadly, I had no idea who John Robb was, so I did a bit of Googling and now have reading material for later!
In all seriousness, I haven't exactly given up on my dreams, but I've definitely given up on the idea of Singularitarianism - what a mouthful! - as Kurzweil and others have defined it, because I don't think it is going to pass that the Singularity will involve everyone at an equal level, and in fact most humans won't be viewed as partners at all. No, most humans will get ground up in it or used as fodder for... something.
The Singularity may not be for everyone, but everyone will be for the Singularity, whether or not everyone is for the Singularity.
(An aside: As Vernor Vinge pointed out, maybe it's not such a great idea to build a transcendent intelligence using “tooth and claw” as the basis - flesh has too many ingrained instincts and emotional failings.)
Anyway, in all the bullshit I was blathering about above, there's one signal in the noise. I guess I'm trying to say that it's OK to dream big, bigger than the local level. Maybe those dreams are delusional, but they can be helpful. They can carry us through.
And just because I can laugh at my own cognitive blinders sometimes, I actually tried doing a Google search on “PNW convention” because I overlooked the definite article in front of PNW, thus not realizing it was just a generic abbreviation for the geographic region you're now in. That got me some interesting hits, including a convention dedicated to people who were recovering addicts. (Somehow, that just didn't seem right...)
But yeah, it just so happens I have other friends who live up that way, so if I visit them, I'll be dropping you guys a line as well.
...now you're making me want to get more writing done again. And I don't mean blogging...
Reply
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