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? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15378