From: Michelle (michelle@barrymenasherealtors.com)
Date: Fri May 31 2002 - 12:08:03 MDT
Hermit -
Thank you for the wonderful and beautiful post ! I really appreciate your
philosophy very much, it goes to the core of what it is to be human, I
think. Made me think of the lyrics to "The Impossible Dream", actually.
Quite a lovely accompaniment to the text of your post. :) It also reminded
me of my initial reaction to Iain Banks's "culture" novels - my puritanical
upbringing had so strongly ingrained the idea that struggle and work are
fundamentally dignified and necessary and right, and the idea of existence
on a purely whimsical, hedonistic plane seemed totally devoid of value to
me. But eventually I came to understand (with the help of some friendly
Berkely-ites) that change is inevitable and exciting, and attachment to "the
way it's always been" isn't helpful or necessary. It was a hard and bright
moment for me, and it changed me forever. It finalized insignificance,
speaking of staring into the abyss and coming away wiser.
My wonder is whether it's necessary to be quite so resigned to struggle with
the spirothetes. As I pondered your post at the gym, I thought about what
motivates us - why we supress other creatures and fight with other cultures
and allow ourselves to do illogical things. It's fear, or desire, of
course. We destroy out of these emotions. Now, what would motivate
synthetic consciousness? Would we program desire? Why would they want
power, really, unless they were mistreated? I don't see that their
competition with us is inevitable unless you posit also that our
mistreatment of them is inevitable. Because if we keep them well-powered
and don't cause them "discomfort" that requires remediation, there's no
reason they'd _feel_ an _impulse_ to herd/rule/outcompete/eliminate/whatever
us. Is there?
-Michelle
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