Mischief Shai-hulud wrote:

Zseni wrote:

But your post was about people buying into Seinfeld. Have you even seen Seinfeld? It's a little late to put this kind of "well what I meant was whatever will appease you" spin on it, tigershorts.

C'mon, Vag. That's INC-level trolling, I expect better from you. Yelling "Not it!" on intentionally misinterpreting me doesn't earn you any extra points. START AGAIN!

OTOH insects and birds both having wings does imply, by the current evolutionary line of thought, that they have in common a particular evolutionary pressure that favors the development of wings.

Oh? Why couldn't they develop them as the result of two completely different evolutionary pressures? And while we're at it, what is this current evolutionary line of thought?

Neither birds nor bees are in any position to say "hey I think the other guy's wings work better...think I'll trade up." But humans increasingly ARE in that position. That's what modernization is all about: increasing our control over all the shit that isn't under our control. So if it is to our advantage to make computers that act like brains - or to modify our own brains to act like computers - then we'll probably bust out on that shizzat, to put it in the colloqial. It will be off the heezy.

No no, you've missed the point enti... oh shit, you called "Not it." Anyway, my rambling point for everyone else was that we don't know how the brain works. The Sci-Fi folks take a few isolated things in common between nerves and computers and just assume that they're so much alike all you have to do is increase the computer speed and complexity -get those math heuristics crunching at a REDICULOUS level- and pretty soon poof! Sentience!

The question I'd like to ask - which appears to bother nobody around here but me - is "what is man's purpose here on this retarded-ass rock." Because Ray is worried that brain-computers will fuck us up in some way.

Well I think the bigger question to ask is why humanity needs a purpose in the first...

But what do I care? On the one hand I'm perfectly capable of perpetuating the species, may whatever god you believe in have mercy on us all; on the other I have access to many religious and occultist schema which would amply fulfill my needs for a "higher calling."

Never Mind. Why do you ask these questions then immediately disavow them?

In what way does a tireless progression towards "greater efficiency" apparently for its own sake equate to anything more or less than another empty ritual/intellectual orgasm? The world will change? Finally, a religion which keeps its promises. But then what?

You're assuming that there really is an end result this march towards efficiency has, other than more efficiency.

Is Ray worried only that the status quo will change? Oh for the heady early days of the internet, when one could use the words "chaos mage" unironically and not be laughed off of usenet summarily. If this question sincerely worried anyone, what keeps him from at least researching the fuck out of it, or otherwise influencing its path of development? These empty rhetorical questions, shouted into a void whose only active agent appears to be my angry red ear, are futility itself. Why isn't anyone worried about that?

I agree. But one person can only organize around a precious few issues during their lifetime. Perhaps these shouters seek to inspire some other passionate young freedom fighter to stop wasting their time with cartoon tentacle rape and start using it to fight for the very survival of our species! Onward!

Or perhaps they're just shooting the shit.

(See here we get to one of my little crosses to bear where the future is concerned: why are people becoming apathetic and anxious at the same time? It is as though modernization has weakened human will inasmuch as it has mollified the elements and provided for our every comfort. What does that mean?)

The more you know, the more you know how much you don't know. Anxiety results. Apathy is the result of energy lost from steadily increasing anxiety that leads to a desire to "just leave all that confusing shit to someone else" and results in apathy. Plus apathy's been treated as a "cool" and "patriotic" american value since the 80s. Whatsamata, sista? Don'tcha wanna be cool???