mindstalk

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• Commented on The Fumes of Mordor & Other World Building Models
  My impression from checking weather reports is that Hawaii doesn't have a cool season, it's mid-80s all year. My impression from being there in spring break is that it's the most comfortable 80s ever, with a constant sea breeze, plus...
• Commented on The Fumes of Mordor & Other World Building Models
  "The Metro is actually one of the few relatively decent mass transit systems in the US; only New York and Boston rival it" Chicago? I haven't experienced DC much, or NYC in a while, but my ranking would be NYC...
• Commented on Wow
  Sounds a bit like a Larry Niven essay, "The Roentgen Standard". Which is up on his website....
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  If creation isn't an intentional act then there's *really* no point to future SI torturing simulations of people who failed to stumble on the right initiation sequence. You need intentionality for the basilisk to have a chance of making sense....
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  You didn't say 'some', you said "The transhumanists", in whicn number I include myself: "The transhumanists’ want to be STALIN when they grow up, or Kim Il-Song, punishing people for their ancestors’ behaviour." Nor have I seen any evidence that...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  " - SI will save hundreds of thousands of lives by making human life better" You know, the assumption isn't just that SI can and will Solve Our Problems, but that it is the only or overwhemingly most likely way...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  I agree in not anticipating Shadowrun prosthetics, chopping off perfectly good body parts, any time soon. OTOH, I note that the standard of "normally healthy body part" is different for a 20 year old vs. an 80 or 90 year...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  I'd call your list Singularitarianism, not transhumanism. Former is a subset of the latter. People who believe in an imminent Rapture are Christians but not all Christians believe in an imminent Rapture. (Analogy isn't perfect: a transhumanist doesn't have to...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  "pretty much all people would agree with and support the improvement of the human condition through technology " The Catholic church opposes IVF and birth control. I believe people did oppose anesthetics for reason of interfering with divine order, though...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  "I coul blather about technology making people immortal or dead all day long without being advised of religious fervour." That's provably false. People were sneering about the Singularity as "Techno-Rapture" or "Rapture for Nerds" long before retrocausal AIgod punishment got...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  But if working to create AI is the first step in the process, the putative future AIgod could punish 'us' for not putting more effort into the process. I think much stronger defenses are the plurality of 'basilisks' like your...
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  Our not being the immediate antecedent seems unimportant; what would matter is our having the foresight to initiate the process. Our antecedents lacked the foresight, so they're not subject. Not that I buy into the Basilisk but Charlie's refutation seems...
• Commented on 2512
  Catholicism does not go back to 4 BC. The alleged birth of Jesus does. The roots of Christianity start around 30 AD and developed over the next couple of centuries. The documents go back early -- just as the Vedas...
• Commented on 2512
  "Nothing beats hydrocarbons in terms of energy density, ease of storage and simplicity of use." But there's also "cost". Fossil hydrocarbons have been nice and cheap. Ones we have to synthesize from the atmosphere might not be cheap enough for...
• Commented on 2512
  As Charlie alluded to, 500 years ago the Protestant Reformation hadn't happend yet. Sikhism had just been created. Mormonism, Ba'hai, and Scientology were all in the future. Conservative and Reform Judaism didn't exist. Bhakti movements were just stating to spread...
• Commented on 2512
  "Science is a religion in that it seeks to explain the world, and it is definitely a religion in that scientists practice it religiously." What does "practice it religiously" mean? We've replaced one vague term with another. I'd agree that...
• Commented on 2512
  You left out Chicago. There's also older small towns that are dense and small enough to walk or bike in, and places within bigger car-centric cities that support such lifestyles, or transit lifestyles, even if the whole city doesn't; several...
• Commented on 2512
  I grew up in a 1910s house in Chicago. Wooden frame and stucco walls, as far as I know. 1100 square feet of living space by the plans, which surprised me went I learned of it, it felt bigger. 3...
• Commented on 2512
  Sure, the eurozone -- not so much the EU proper -- has hit speed bumps. But we're talking on a scale of 500 years. Even if the current EU balks, what will the next generation, grown up in an even...
• Commented on 2512
  No mention of world government or the European Union? Charlie says the Westphalian model isn't that old but doesn't say what might replace it. Government's core justifications are to keep the peace, including defense, and manage commons. Obvious commons especially...
• Commented on 2512
  "500 years is close to the human mean life expectancy if all medical causes of death are abolished: eventually an accident or violence will get you." Uh, show your work, Charlie? I think you're blindly passing on someone else's bad...