From: Alex Michael Bonnici (albonnici_at_vol.net.mt)
Date: Mon Aug 15 2005 - 20:55:04 UTC
Dear Larry and Friends,
My response to Ray Kurzweil's thesis is GOD
FORBID!!!!! "Most of us will become gods". NOT BLOODY LIKELY!!!!!!! MOST OF US
WILL FACE THE TYRANNY OF RICH AND IMMORTAL OVERLORDS!!!!!!!! Larry this
critique is not a personal attack on you.nor Ray. I have always admired Ray's
work in developing technologies that have helped people with disabiliites. And
with the way things have been going for me personally healthwise I may be
needing Ray's reading machine within the next couple of years or sooner.
I am beginning to share Bill Joy's views on the subject of Transhumanism.
The world is already divided by economic and technological disparity as it is.
This development will only lead to even greater divisions in the human family.
In my old age I am finding myself increasingly conservative and can no longer
support the transhumanist cause nor useless extravaganzas of sending the rich on
cislunar holiday tours. In recent months the rich nations of the World dragged
their feet to raise just a few million dollars to prevent a famine in the
African nation of Niger. Where are our priorities?
I have always supported the space program and still do. But, what happed to the
grassroots support for such programs as Solar Power Satellites, Alternative
Energy, Global Education via Telecommunications Satellites, and Space
Industralization that could allivate global poverty? Why has the whole space
movement gone astray?
My stomach turns at the whole prospect of the immortal rich enjoying holiday
tours of the heavens while the vast majority of humanity wallows in abject
poverty. What happened to Science in the service of humanity? What next "Life
Styles of the Rich and Immortal on Holovision"?
Alex Michael Bonnici
LARRY KLAES wrote:
> Most of us will become gods. And not one of those wimpy anthropomorphic gods
> from Greek myth, but gods trillions of times more intelligent than mere
> mortal men. Such is the thesis of Ray Kurzweil, who argues in The
> Singularity Is Near that humanity is inexorably headed towards the
> Singularity.
>
> http://techcentralstation.com/081505C.html
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