Restrain Technoloty or Die

 Restrain Technology or Die

A friend of mine wrote an interesting paper on transhumanism: Trans or Not to Trans, Accompanying Slides.  He asked for my thoughts, and here is what I wrote:

I just got around to reading Jerry's Transhumanism paper.  The slides shared previously make a lot more sense now!

This is a great paper, describing as it does human evolution, our current position, and prospects for the future, using a scientific and technological perspective.  With regard to the ultimate question -- "To Trans or not to Trans – That is the Question. What do you think?" -- I would reply that the question is "How should we proceed in the direction of transhumanism?".

As well documented in the paper, the process is already well underway.  While many are recommending we proceed with caution or try to put the cat back in the bag, how can we do that?  The paramount goal must be the same as in natural selection -- survival.  Genes survive which are most well adapted to their environment.  Our environment is changing at breakneck speed and the genes / human technology will not be able to keep up.  Therefore, we need to slow down environmental change.  Above all, this means clamping down on technological change.  

To address one issue with this mentioned in the paper -- "any effort in the West to regulate implementation of the TH agenda will largely fail because the Chinese will never agree to conform to Western ethical values".  I don't think this possibility should be dismissed out of hand.  The Chinese are probably better placed to control technology than "the West" because they have a more top down government and are not as subject to capitalist anarchy.  To the extent that "we" have any power with regard to transhumanism, "we" need to control our own behavior.  That means strict regulation on technological development.

Just my 2 cents.  Thanks for writing this and sharing!

P.S. The book I'm "reading" now (on Audible) is discussing the evolutionary and genetic basis of feelings such as goodwill and guilt (the conscience).  Let's get working on increasing those.

 Revolt of the Public, FBI Edition

My world view is that the CIA assassinated JFK and RFK, and the FBI assassinated MLK.  I now know these things to be true following a lifetime (~ 50 years) of uncertainty.  I believe that it is much easier to uncover the truth in the Internet era.  Whereas in the 20th century it was possible for the elite to control the discourse, this is now impossible as discussed by former CIA analyst Martin Gurri in his book The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium.

Another thing that has changed since the 1960s is the ubiquity of the cell phone camera.  Imagine if these had been available during the assassination decade (the 1960s).  Well they are available today and we have extensive video evidence indicating the the so-called January 6 insurrection was actually a riot orchestrated by the FBI.  See:

• Meet Ray Epps: The Fed-Protected Provocateur Who Appears To Have Led The Very First 1/6 Attack On The U.S. Capitol - Revolver 
• Meet Ray Epps, Part 2: Damning New Details Emerge Exposing Massive Web Of Unindicted Operators At The Heart Of January 6

This seems to me to be conclusive evidence of how the FBI orchestrated the riot.  This sort of documentation was never before possible, and people still can't believe it.  

The larger issue is how we, the public, make use of this new power.  Do we ignore the evidence before our eyes in favor of ratcheting up tribal warfare?  Or do we expand our horizons to understand that our  democracy is not what it has seemed to be according to the conventional wisdom?  I advocate the latter, accompanied by renewed dedication to improving our democracy, and improving our public discourse.  Perhaps if we recognize that our understanding of the world has been flawed, we will be more understanding of one another, and better able to engage in civil discourse.  

Nihilism, the Web, and Grandchildren

 A friend of mine shared a short story he has written, asking for feedback.  It was a good story in a haunting post modernist style.  Here was my response:

Thanks for sharing your story, Jerry   Quite evocative and somewhat descriptive of our lonely times.  It brings to mind the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber:

He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, and becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth. Graeber describes five types of meaningless jobs, in which workers pretend their role is not as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history

I looked up Maus and it fits well with your story:

it depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodernist techniques and represents Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, the English as fish, the French as frogs, and the Swedish as deer. Critics have classified Maus as memoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, or a mix of genres. In 1992, it became the first (and is still the only) graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize (the Special Award in Letters). Spiegelman depicts these experiences, from the years leading up to World War II to his parents' liberation from the Nazi concentration camps. Much of the story revolves around Spiegelman's troubled relationship with his father, and the absence of his mother, who committed suicide when he was 20. Her grief-stricken husband destroyed her written accounts of Auschwitz.  

Life is good these days, while it lasts.  Technology is amazing and infinite knowledge is just an Internet connection away.  My current interest is in combating nihilism.  

Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin nihil 'nothing') is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects general or fundamental aspects of human existence,[1][2] such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values or meaning.[3][4] Different nihilist positions hold variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some set of entities do not exist or are meaningless or pointless.[5][6]

I followed up with this personal reflection:

Jerry's check-in and short story inspire me to do the same.  I will build upon one of my comments in response to Jerry's short story:

infinite knowledge is just an Internet connection away

Here are a couple of examples of this in my life from the past two days:

1. I replaced a 3-way light switch on Wednesday, something I had never done before.  I looked it up on YouTube and instantly found a couple of videos showing how to do this, making it relatively easy.  I followed up later with another video that included an animation showing the mechanism, giving the why it works in addition to the how to do it. 
2. I picked up Lawrence's kids (ages 7, 9, and 12) from school yesterday and they wanted to play math and geography games in the car.  They were able to answer most of my questions.  It turned out that Chase was using his cell phone to get the answers with a calculator or Siri lookup.  Sean ratted him out for using the cell phone in the back seat, but I think it's impressive that a 10 year old can instantly find the answers to many basic questions.  It reminds me of the wisdom of the old proverb:  "Give a person a fish, (s)he eats for a day.  Teach a person to fish, (s)he eats for a lifetime."

I find creative works such as your "On Watch" meaningful, in something of a paradox.  The fact that you write this and share it with friends demonstrates a desire to find meaning in life, in my view.