Re: What's going on this decade?

From: Charles D Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Aug 09 2006 - 20:18:52 MDT


Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote:
> Charles D Hixson wrote:
>> Mary Tobias wrote:
>>> Ben Goertzel wrote:
>>> ...
>> of Charles Stross commentary on that. Or look at the lists of Hugo
>> winners. This is going to mean that a lot of the development is
>> moving to other countries. Other reasons are always given as to why,
>> but I suspect those reasons of being derivative rather than primary.
>> So what's happening now is that the current top dog is trying to
>> freeze the future into a mirror of the present...and destroying the
>> present in the process. May we live through this.
> Oh sigh. It's very U.S.-centric to consider it the top dog in its
> class. I don't know what standards you want to use, but I wouldn't
> consider the U.S. the "best" country in any sense. I don't know that I
> ever have. Ditto the so-called growth of so-called fundamentalist
> religion. What do you use to justify this claim, and against what
> other periods of history are you comparing, and why are your samples
> reasonable?
>
>> I don't know how I feel about the possibility of living in a universe
>> where I die as well as live whenever I cross the street...but then
>> I'm not sure how I feel about living in a simulation either, or being
>> a tool for the Escaton.
> Huh -- you probably live in one already.
>
> Cheers,
> -T
Sorry, but I was speaking of the viewpoint taken by political leaders.
That doesn't totally mean "traditional military", but it sure has a
large component of that. We can hope that the next turn of the wheel
takes place along a different axis, as I don't think we could survive
too many military standoffs like the last 50 years (well, 40 of the
last 50 years). If you want a look at that thinking, look at who in the
US is funding robots. Now look at who in Japan. See the difference?



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