On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 4:14 AM James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ben I really hate it when people interject "go read this book" in a > conversation but you're a voracious enough reader that I hope you'll > forgive me when I request that you read E. O. Wilson's "The Social Conquest > of Earth" to get a handle on where I'm coming from in my use of the word > "agency" in the context of incorporations like "nation states" or, more > accurately, "cultures". But in the likely event that you won't do so, here > is the tl;dr: > I have read that book some years ago, actually > I suspect this is at the root of why China and Jews are more intelligent: A long collective memory of the damage done by civilizational cycles. There is some depth to this point, yeah > This destructive tendency can be enhanced by an adversarial culture and > clearly is being enhanced in the West -- transhumanism's > two-birds-in-the-bush notwithstanding. In this respect transhumanism > strikes me as a classic con. > I don't understand what you mean by this last point, could you elaborate? ben ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Tf065676fd779dd5c-M093686a2d967f66b20bf7a4b Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
