Humanity 2.0

[Saurian Tail]

[tazmic]

Having spent some time trying to understand Fuller:

(wma)"The Role of Adaptive Preferences in Narratives of Progress and Self-Improvement" (Warwick, 27 Sep 2011).

(mp3)"Humanity as an Interdisciplinary Project", EDAMBA Workshop, Grenoble/Warwick videoconference (25 October 2010)

etc. from here

he's gone and spelled it out for me (17:54 -> 19:50):



Related:

"Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance"
('Strategies for Transformation: It is essential to prepare key organizations and societal activities for the changes made possible by converging technologies.') report

In ways that advance the process of globalization?

"The Hi-tech Revolutions of the 21st Century: Harnessing the scientific and technological fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced IT, and cognitive science in ways that advance the process of globalization."
http://www.foet.org/lectureevents.html.

[tazmic]

Moral Enhancement.

http://www.bryanappleyard.com/drugged-morals/

"Last night in Newsnight I was in the studio with Jeremy Paxman and Professor Barbara Sahakian waiting to debate a film report about the use of drugs for cognitive enhancement. See the whole thing here, it starts at about 24 minutes. Many scientists and students, it seems, are already routinely taking Modafinil to make themselves more alert. It is not widely approved but it does seem to be available on the internet. Dr Anders Sandberg suddenly appeared to speak about future pharmaceutical developments which would provide ‘moral enhancement’."

"Moral enhancement cannot be a scientific project because neither term has any measurable meaning that can be universalised. Rather, it is an ideological project which would hand power to an oligarchy of neuropharmacologists who would be permitted to decide that somebody – probably them – had the power to determine our moral status. This embodies the familiar delusion of many powerful and prejudiced people that all history and culture attained some kind of apotheosis at the moment of their birth."

Dr Anders Sandberg:

http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/our_staff/research/anders_sandberg

"Anders Sandberg’s research at the Future of Humanity Institute centres on societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement and new technology, as well as estimating the capabilities and underlying science of future technologies. Topics of particular interest include enhancement of cognition, cognitive biases, technology-enabled collective intelligence, neuroethics and public policy. He has worked on this within the EU project ENHANCE, where he also was responsible for public outreach and online presence."

ENHANCE:



http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/549

"I’m amazed that the EU is this far ahead in the discussion. Europeans have shown considerable distaste up to this point in time with anything having to do with human genetics and issues of enhancement. Here in North America, the only governmental group I see this in tune with humanity’s future is the National Science Foundation. Specifically, I’m thinking about their NBIC report from a few years back, the effects of which are still being felt. As for Canada, these issues aren’t even close to the policy issues map."

[Hammer of Los]

..

Saurian Tale's picture and accompanying lyric convey The Mystery well.

..

Thanks for the Brian Appleyard links Taz my dear old friend.

..

[tazmic]

Saurian Tale's picture and accompanying lyric convey The Mystery well.
..
Thanks for the Brian Appleyard links Taz my dear old friend.

You're most welcome, HOL.

"Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it." ~ Jung, The Integration of the Personality (1939)

[Simulist]

"Moral enhancement cannot be a scientific project because neither term has any measurable meaning that can be universalised. Rather, it is an ideological project which would hand power to an oligarchy of neuropharmacologists who would be permitted to decide that somebody – probably them – had the power to determine our moral status. This embodies the familiar delusion of many powerful and prejudiced people that all history and culture attained some kind of apotheosis at the moment of their birth."

An "oligarchy of neuropharmacologists" determining "our moral status"?

Hmm. I guess some ideas only sound good on paper.

You know, like hiring the BTK Killer to teach sex education.

[Luther Blissett]

Having spent some time trying to understand Fuller, he's gone and spelled it out for me (17:54 -> 19:50):

Here, I've transcribed it:

…I do think there is going to be this issue of how much diversity is tolerable within an affordable medical system or welfare system, which is kind of the context in which the "racial hygiene" movement first got established, in the context of creating welfare states. I'm very much of the mind, if any of you are familiar with the history of philosophy, if you look at people like Leibniz, Hegel, all of these people are devotees of a certain branch of theology called theodicy, which is basically how god justifies evil in the world. If you've got this great god, why is everything so horrible? All that misery is a means towards a greeter end that will be realized in the fullness of time. As creatures created in the image and likeness of god, we participate in that process. It's just for us to, as it were, suffer as victims, but it's actually for us to be engaged with the process, and to experiment with the world, and experiment with ourselves, and to go forward, and transform things, and yes there will be a lot of damage on the way, yes a lot of people will die, but it will be in the name of a greater good. I actually do believe something like that I have to say. I do think that anyone who wants to get onboard with transhumanism or the enhancement project and really wants to think about this in a comprehensively social way, is going to have to live with that. In other words, you're gonna have to take that onboard, you can't get into this kind of blinkered libertarian world where everybody just makes their own little choices individually. Being involved in scientific experiments should be part of national service. You should be obliged to do it. The problem is that if this whole enhancement agenda, and all this scientization, technologization, if this is just something that people can choose to either be "in" or "out," given the current socioeconomic disparities in the world today, we're just going to see a wider and wider gap between the haves and the have-nots. So my point is that you've got to get everybody on board…

[tazmic]

Cheers Luther!

[Harvey]

It's only slightly less probable to me that humanity 2.0 might have a more biological basis. Has anyone read Darwins Radio by Greg Bear? It gives a beautifully rendered account of how we might evolve next, and how we might react (have already reacted - in the narrative) to the occurance of punctuated equilibrium in our time.

But back to the thread direction, another question I wonder about, is whether a machine that we build is any less a part of nature, especially if it shares consciousness and everything that entails. I would argue that nature is conscioussness, and a machine fashioned from the same material as we, by products of nature such as we, and which is conscious as we are, would be no less a part of nature than we are. Especially if you accept that there is a guiding hand behind everything good that we do.

An old and naive painting of mine which tried to grapple with such things, (unsuccessfully! Although I see that somehow, despite me, it contains a few worthwhile things which I didn't see at the time!)



"The machine, that we built, would never save us, that's what they say."

[Hammer of Los]

..

Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it.

Is that what Jung said?

I don't think he knew as much as he thought he knew.

Thats just what I think.

..

[Harvey]

..

Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it.

Is that what Jung said?

I don't think he knew as much as he thought he knew.

I am a monkey. I have swallowed my own tail. Jung didnt know what he was on about.

Thats just what I think.

..

I'm not certain, Los, a condition as uncomfortable as it is difficult to maintain.

Perhaps a knowing embrace is only one way forward.

Perhaps creativity is to forever know both the light and the dark fully, until we fall. It's a hard thing, you're riding a monocycle over a tightrope while balancing spinning blue plates in one hand, juggling flaming red balls in the other, all the while balanced above an abyss filled with nails and blades.

You will fall. Perhaps the only question in such an act is will you fall well, or fall badly.

[semper occultus]

....hey did you do that painting Harvey ?

...nice work....another gifted RI poster....although if i said it'd look great as some sort of Hawkwind album cover or something I'd doubtless not only offend you but also prove conclusively I'm no art critic...

...so I won't....

[Harvey]

....hey did you do that painting Harvey ?

...nice work....another gifted RI poster....although if i said it'd look great as some sort of Hawkwind album cover or something I'd doubtless not only offend you but also prove conclusively I'm no art critic...

...so I won't....

I like Hawkwind, but my pic isn't worthy.

[Hammer of Los]

..

I took a ride on a silver machine.

Prog rock is sacred music.

Take it from me harvey, your picture is indeed worthy, as you are. Believe that, my friend.

Do you know the meaning of your picture?

Neither do I, but I think we can find out together.

..

[semper occultus]

..calling all cars...massive thread hi-jack in progress !

I like Hawkwind, but my pic isn't worthy.

indeed it is..too modest by half : Barney Bubbles lives....

..Prog rock is sacred music...

...prog...?

now that is offensive !

no arty-farty finesse about those guys...space-rock...acid-rock...hippie-punks..definitely...although I suppose Brockie's guitar solos did go on a bit !!