X-Message-Number: 28009
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:33:38 -0600
From: "Anthony ." <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #28006 - #28008
References: <>

> Message #28007
> Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 18:56:02 -0500
> From: 
> These crises are
> all difficult if not impossible to solve, so this drama needs a Deus ex
> Machina to magically appear and save our souls.  Enter:  The Singularity AI!

Much like the deus ex machina, the Singularity is a literary device, a
prop. Much like the hopes that animate the wish for a real deus ex
machina, the Singularity is an article of faith. Sure, there are
"signs" it is going to happen, much like Flavanoids scary 06-06-06
date. Spookily, 06-06-2006 doesn't mean anything, just like 1666
didn't, even though there was a big fire in London.

>  the Singularity ... will only take one genius madman to bring it
> about.

1 man to save/destroy the world? This is an old story.

Sorry, this is getting off the point, which is that I find cryonics so
mystifying sometimes. The procedure offers the surest way of having
the slightest chance against being dead - it is a logical extension of
our medical ethics. Yet few people are willing to entertain it. This
is the strange thing that many of us are puzzled by, though most of us
have pet theories to explain it too.

The other mystifying thing about cryonics is that cryonicists seem as
gung-ho about the future as everyone else - yet we have the best
chance among those of our generations to see it. Having children who
will see the future is obviously not enough to motivate people to put
a break on monopolies of vast wealth and power, nor on environmental
ruin.... Is it not enough of a motivating force that we ourselves
might be around to live in an exhausted and polluted world? Shouldn't
we, as cryonicists, seek to align ourselves with other groups that
promote sustainable living to ensure that there is a quality future in
which to be "reanimated"?

I suspect (& this will explain why I'm not current riding "Ecowarrior"
either) that our faith in progress (that science will improve to the
point that we'll all be revived, uploaded, whatever) keeps us hoping
that we'll also invent the means to quickly clean up the mess we've
been making. So I suppose all this talk of Singularity is going to
continue, by way of comfort and destraction.

Anthony

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