tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post3685564588179821682..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Enjoyable Twitter Exchange Over Cryonics Between Alex Knapp and Michael AnissimovDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-17755504334005662552012-12-14T01:43:26.473-08:002012-12-14T01:43:26.473-08:00In their quest to attract an audience comparable t...In their quest to attract an audience comparable to their sister sites io9 has apparently opted for eyeballs at any cost, a long-term loser strategy if I ever heard one, since nobody with any respect for consensus science practice or interest in imaginative science fiction will read for long a site the geekdom equivalent of wingnut daily news. Spotlighting Robot Cultists as they are now -- and if you thought Dvorsky was jumping the shark, Prisco's New Age cyber-angels meets right wing talking points really is the worst of the worst -- one wonders if champions of homeopathy and defenders of Scientology are next on the menu. Annalee Newitz is a smart cookie with good politics, she knows better and that makes this all the worse -- she should hand her head in shame to be associated with these flagrant charlatans and ignoramuses.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-46958650499749093682012-12-14T00:07:54.153-08:002012-12-14T00:07:54.153-08:00Sorry for the off topic Dale but...ugh...look who ...Sorry for the off topic Dale but...ugh...look who they let post on Io9 now...<br /><br />http://io9.com/5968280/why-we-should-send-uploaded-astronauts-on-interstellar-missions<br /><br /><br />Your favorite Italian :) .<br /><br />Io9 used to be a nice place to visit...joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02594646216557510485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-13719902237589714402012-12-14T00:04:37.145-08:002012-12-14T00:04:37.145-08:00Oh God help us...that last "No one"..you...Oh God help us...that last "No one"..you can almost feel the sadness pouring out of him as he tapped it out...<br /><br />He's like a kid being told Santa might not get past airport security this christmas.joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02594646216557510485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-59960672944908330232012-12-13T16:21:10.591-08:002012-12-13T16:21:10.591-08:00Of course, as both Twitter discussants know (but o...Of course, as both Twitter discussants know (but only one will admit) there's a reason why nobody works on recovering memories from dead animal brains: degradation of the neural network removes all mind.Athena Andreadishttp://www.starshipreckless.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-51164683558035923982012-12-13T10:47:06.808-08:002012-12-13T10:47:06.808-08:00(From the last Dvorsky installment, below.)
> ...(From the last Dvorsky installment, below.)<br /><br />> The endless circulation and amplification of the earth-alienated<br />> vantage of techno-fixated futurological disdain of the earth we<br />> are evolved to flourish and were born responsible to as nothing but<br />> "a rock we need to get off or we're doomed" -- a sentiment usually<br />> accompanying articles making claims like this one, and almost<br />> inevitably appearing in their comments if not in the article<br />> itself, not to mention its implication in Very Serious think-tank<br />> position papers premised on the economic "escape hatch" of endless<br />> growth and advertisements promoting the existential "escape hatch"<br />> of heedless consumption -- is no small part of the reason why we<br />> collaborate in this criminal suicidal genocidal planecidal madness. <br /><br />And, the quote from Anissimov:<br /><br />> We will recover memories from dead animal brains within 10 years, I predict.<br /><br />You know, I used to buy all this stuff wholesale. I really did.<br /><br />I remember a conversation I had back in 1976 with a guy who<br />was (and probably still is) a serious environmentalist and<br />nature-lover. I was 24 at the time; he was a couple of years<br />older than me.<br /><br />He was lamenting the disappearance of species in this human-dominated<br />age (though I don't think it was yet spoken of as the most recent "mass<br />extinction event"), but I blithely waved away his concerns<br />by opining "Oh, all we need to do is collect and archive genetic samples<br />of all the threatened species. Then, in a few years, we can<br />resurrect them if we want to." (This was before _Jurassic Park_, too. ;-> ).<br /><br />The sheer naivete -- the fatuous smugness -- of that attitude!<br />I'm amazed my interlocutor refrained from punching me in my<br />snotty little nose! (He was a nice guy, though.)<br /><br />I continued to buy this sort of nonsense all through the 1990s, having read<br />Moravec's _Mind Children_ in '88 and _Beyond Humanity: CyberEvolution and<br />Future Minds_ in '96 (I discovered Greg Egan the same year).<br /><br />It took my actually interacting with (and finally, meeting) real<br />>Hists and Singularitarians (in the flesh! Not in Second Life or,<br />uh, as uploads) for me to finally realize how self-deludedly<br />nuts (faith-based, denialist, narcissistic, heads-up-asses) the<br />whole package is.<br /><br />"We will recover memories from dead animal brains within 10 years,<br />I predict."<br /><br />Well, why not. We can already make cheese from armpit bacteria.<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com