--- In [email protected], Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jim Flanegin" wrote: "So this is it- the Age of Enlightenment, when > enlightenment and its symptoms are becoming common and everyday. Not > really being able to see how specifically the world will transform as > this becomes fully accepted into everyone's awareness, but it ain't > goin' away anytime soon either. :-)" > > I wonder about timing, Jim. > > This A of E phase transition seems to be coming at me full speed these > days -- I feel like liquid Jello that was placed in the frig awhile > ago, and I'm just about to gel. Perchance to wiggle -- with small > Maharshmellows suspended, of course! > > Whatever that means! Sigh. > > Here's the deal, this 2012 "end of days" thingy of the Mayans, it just > keeps grabbing me again and again. Almost always when I see something > repeated in my experiencing, it's a sign of things to come. I may be > entirely deluded, but it seems like I sometimes know the future. But > I seldom know I knew until I know I knew after the known is finally > known. Ugly sentence! > > This prediction jives with other things afoot. And, can't remember > which one it was, but didn't a tribe of Native American Indians > predicted great change when the sign of the bear is everywhere? Well, > that's parallel claw marks on a tree that look just like today's bar > codes. > > And don't get me started on the fact that all bar codes start with 6, > end with 6, and have 6 exactly in the middle. All of them. So > there's the sign of the beast's coming. > > But the above's from folks predicting a future a thousand years from > their "then." > > Today's predicticationalists are just as likely to loosen anyone's > bowels. And, it's not the current fascination of the Discovery and > National Geographic channels with extinction level events that I am > being scared by. > > It's the singularities just around the technological corner. > > Soon, very soon, nanotechnology will be able to make dust-mote- sized > machines that can duplicate themselves -- with brains on board. > > Read "Swarm" by Michael Crichtion. That'll stain your drawers. And > this is going to be possible in less than 20 years. > > When it hits us, it's called a singularity, because after that > happens, no one can predict beyond that point -- an event horizon must > be crossed before we can tell what the inside of a black hole looks > like. Once nano-Pandora's done the deed, we may all become THE BORG > as the little creeps get into everything -- our bodies, our food, the > biosphere. > > Then there's the Artificial Intelligence Birth concept -- Evil, > Conscious, Software. HAL 9000, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Saturn > 3, Terminator, I, Robot, and the list goes on. I don't think that > this is possible in the way Hollywood depicts -- maybe never, cuz I > think that the Godel incompleteness theorem chucks a monkey wrench > into the works. But I DO think that software can be created that > mimics free will and that creates an impenetrable illusion of > awareness, soul. And if such software gets it's hands on "other > software," we might find that this automaton is lurching towards us > like The Mummy. A mummy that can tell traffic lights to stop working > or on a whim tell a nuclear electric plant to melt down. And that's > just for starters -- the real power that conscious AI would wield is > that it will outstrip human intelligence and just have its way with us > "biounits." We'll all be inside a short yellow bus taking a ride to > Armageddon. > > Then there's Genetic Engineering. It won't be long before a twelve > year old child can own a computer that can create almost any molecule. > Mix and match. Swine and tomatoes for instance. What will these > script kiddies unleash upon Gaia? A new mold, a new virus, it won't > be T-Rex, but it'll have an appetite like one. > > BigMedia is selling headlines concerned about space rocks ending life > as we know it, but almost certainly we'll have the technology in place > to divert them by the time any of the presently known problem hunks > head our way, but we have NO SOLUTIONS for the above singularities -- > that's why their called singularities! They blind us with the utter > freedom of their potentials. > > I'm just hoping to live up to the time when these things happen -- be > a shame to miss them just because I got old and died. So I'm trying > to stay healthy enough to make it to the mass murder of the human race! > > Edg > That is why it is so necessary for an enlightened consciousness to see these developments in technology for what they are, instead of blindly being led by them. Instead of stumbling upon the atomic bomb and being awed and seduced by it, I hope that when we find its next equivalent, we either yawn and bury it, or find a life supporting use for it.:-)
