We are no Lords of Creation, more like grass of the field
that caught fire. When the fuel is
gone the fire will disappear. I see three paths of combustion: 1. The singularity is near with a hyperbolic transformation of
human nature into something other. 2. We perish from the earth for our sins or some
accident from outer space. 3: The flare-up of consciousness passes from people to AI. Using people to think will be
like using monkeys to test drugs, a cheap work-around until something better
composes itself.
Picture billions of humans, sort of the Northern Spotted Owl of tomorrow, not
very useful but cheap to leave content in ecological reserves. Today there’s worry about jobs lost to robots
as San Francisco raises the minimum wage to $15 and totally awesome hamburgermachines get invented to compensate. Tomorrow it will
be so cheap to supply basic energy, food and selfies to humans that most people will
have no need to work unless they have a spark within.
Per Ardua Ad Astra will be for the very few. All progress is self-limiting, coming up with
zoning rules, copyrights, review boards and Thou Shalt Nots to keep things just
the way they are after I got mine. With self-driving
cars and bicycle helmets, eco-reserves for minnows and frogs, reflective jackets and dawn-to-dusk parent-patrolled
childhood, there will be less challenge and those who survive will be both fit
and un-fit. In other words, evolution is treated like the enemy. People as we know them are
becoming less fit to survive and reproduce though richer and freer than ever
before.
What fuel these mortals be.
As a conservative do you protect the fuel or the spark?
No comments:
Post a Comment