X-Message-Number: 15378
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: Deasigner babies and nano surveillance
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 11:49:41 -0000

Designer babies:

All this speculation about designer babies forgets one simple point. The
birth-rate amongst well off people is declining rapidly. Once ageing is
halted, and certainly when it is reversed, this decline will fall to a mere
trickle, I would speculate.

High Tech Surveillance:

"To be a successful liar you need a good memory for detail".

People that get to the top in our present society know that they can
manipulate the truth in order to get where they are. Modern technology as it
stands is beginning to get in the way of this sort of behaviour, with
politicians and other people in authority all around the world being caught
out.

People with good memories for detail are capable of manipulating the world
to their advantage and are obviously worried about developments that make
this less easy. They play on the public's fears about voyeurism etc and the
media's antics over famous' people sex lives and so on amplifies this fear.
But suppose the world is headed for a totally open society, where everyone
is exactly the same, ie it is possible to log onto a server somewhere that
gives you a clear picture of what is happening at any set of co-ordinates in
the inhabited universe (in the present time this is just the Earth and its
inhabited artificial satellite) and replays of say the past ten years at any
given co-ordinate set (rather like http://www.dejanews.com with postings on
newsgroups). Clearly everyone would have to behave in an exemplary manner,
whether on the global political level, through national and local laws to
acceptable family behavioural standards. However the chances are that no one
will be watching at the time - but if there is some anomaly in the future it
is possible to look back.

Is this actually much different to the situation envisioned by many myths
and fables in the past when god or gods looked down on the world?

The only difference is that this will be reality, no fable.


--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz
my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors'
report, an autobio and various other projects:
http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt
http://www.autopsychoice.com - should you be able to chose autopsy?

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