tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post3689001213053216551..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Gaming the Refs in the Robot CultDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-86915458558806757582012-09-02T18:16:49.655-07:002012-09-02T18:16:49.655-07:00> And if you do follow that link as More asks y...> And if you do follow that link as More asks you to and as<br />> I did you get the impression that Brian Wowk is the only<br />> scientist in the world as far as these guys are concerned.<br />> Now, Brian Wowk may be the cat's meow, or not, but he isn't<br />> the only scientist in the world who is doing science relevant<br />> to the claims of techno-immortalists of the cryonics sect<br />> of the Robot Cult. He just isn't.<br /><br />http://chronopause.com/index.php/2011/04/19/cryonics-nanotechnology-and-transhumanism-utopia-then-and-now<br />---------------------<br />It is important to understand that the nanotechnology folks didn’t<br />come to cryonicists and hitch a ride on our star. Quite the reverse<br />was the case. Eric Dexler was given a gift subscription to _Cryonics_<br />magazine by someone, still unknown, well before the publication of<br />_Engines of Creation_. When he completed his draft of _Engines_,<br />which was then called _The Future by Design_, he sent out copies<br />of the manuscript to a large cross-section of people – including<br />to us at Alcor. I can remember opening the package with dread;<br />by that time we were starting to receive truly terrible manuscripts<br />from Alcor members who believed that they had just written the<br />first best selling cryonics novel. These manuscripts had to be read. . .<br /><br />Drexler was soliciting comments, and he got them – probably several<br />hundred pages worth from [us]. And he listened to those comments –<br />in fact, a robust correspondence began. I think that the ideas<br />in Eric’s book, and to large extent the way he presented them were<br />overwhelmingly positive, **and that they were very good for<br />cryonics**, in the bargain. As just one small example, a young<br />computer whiz kid, who was writing retail point-of-sale programs in<br />Kenora, Canada, was recruited mostly on the basis of Drexler’s<br />scenarios for nanotechnology and cell and tissue repair. His name,<br />by the way, was Brian Wowk. As an amusing aside, the brochure<br />that recruited Brian to cryonics is reproduced at the end of this<br />article; we thought it was cutting edge marketing at the time<br />(hokey though it was, it was indeed cutting edge, in terms of<br />content, if not artistic value).<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-65357712551845596992012-09-02T15:33:06.505-07:002012-09-02T15:33:06.505-07:00I'm still around, I love reading Dale's st...I'm still around, I love reading Dale's stuff. I have no problem with it.Michael Anissimovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06217926458888484768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-31389769448771487762012-08-30T16:55:39.711-07:002012-08-30T16:55:39.711-07:00> Even if it is true that Athena Andreadis and ...> Even if it is true that Athena Andreadis and Richard Jones<br />> and PZ Myers and others like them (all of whom I cherish and<br />> respect more than I can say) really are able to demolish<br />> the would-be scientific claims made by superlative futurologists<br />> (transhumanoids, singularitarians, techno-immortalists,<br />> nano-cornucopiasts, and so on) on scientific grounds, I really<br />> do think there is also a vitally important sense in which<br />> such disputes themselves can perversely function to legitimize<br />> the pseudo-scientists, can yield for the true believers a kind<br />> of reality-effect that fuels and substantiates their fantasies.<br /><br />Well, the true believers, as long as they remain true believers,<br />are out of reach anyway.<br /><br />I, for one, am glad there is some publicly-searchable and -readable<br />pushback going on (and yes, **you** seem to be the center of it!).<br /><br />I'm hoping that the days are over when a scam like Scientology<br />né Dianetics (which similarly enthralled much of the SF crowd<br />back in the 50's -- John W. Campbell, A. E. Van Vogt) can literally<br />terrorize the press and cow individual authors into remaining silent,<br />as Scientology was able to do for **decades** before the advent<br />of the Web made that kind of de facto suppression of free speech<br />simply impossible.<br /><br />Do you remember six years ago, when somebody named John Bruce started<br />taking (not unreasonable) pot shots at the Singularitarian/<br />Transhumanist/Cryonicist crowd on his blog "In the Shadow of<br />Mt. Hollywood"? The >Hist spin-control folks (James Hughes<br />among them) actually wrote letters to him to attempt to<br />"educate" him out of his "misunderstandings" of the topics<br />he wrote about. As if **he** was the one who needed<br />educating! The smug fatuity of it!.<br /><br />And, of course, when **you** decided it was time to enhance the --<br />frankness, shall we say? -- of your own criticism, there was<br />a time when folks like Michael Anissimov were buzzing around,<br />trying every tactic in the book ("I thought we were friends.",<br />"Why are you treating me like dirt?" "Singularitarianism<br />is **not** a cult! Stop it at once!") until he finally gave<br />up.<br /><br />You know, when I was 11 or so I was introduced to a kind of<br />transhumanism (not long after seeing the old _Outer Limits_ episode<br />"The Sixth Finger" ;-> ) by a paperback edition of<br />Arthur C. Clarke's _Profiles of the Future_, which made a<br />big, big impression on me. It wasn't until quite recently<br />that I discovered that the man, at least in his older<br />years, held some -- shall we say, non-mainstream? -- views<br />about such things as cold fusion. I still don't know whether<br />to think he got a little crackpotty in his old age, or whether<br />he was **always** an out-and-out crackpot. That's the kind of<br />thing I never would have discovered before the advent of the<br />Web. But it's the kind of thing I **want** people who are<br />examining the contemporary >Hist organization(s) to be able<br />to find out about, **before** they've gotten too invested --<br />emotionally, socially, or financially -- in the movement.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com