I tihink that we are bombarded with such a reductionist view of what it means to be a human being daily that we often get drawn into it without being aware of it. Computers are qualitatively different than the human mind, at their foundation they are electronic devices that do binary math, end of story.
I think at the foundation of AI machine driven world view is a disgust with what people see of the dark side of humanity. There is certainly a desire to transcent our own dark side by escaping into the rationality of the "logical' world of computers and machines. I think in the end a darker kind of hell awaits us there.
We must take charge of our own dark sides by confronting and owning it, the only way towards true transcendence.
I believe that we are moving into a period where the center is everywhere and the edge is nowhere. Sites like these are proving that the days of passive entertainment is over. I read a recent statistic that TV homes have dropped from 87.3% to 84.7% and more surprisingly that only 5% of new households created last year added cable.Network programing is trying to invade the internet, but here they will be a less interesting voice amoung many others. People are starting to take their minds and lives back. The control mechanism of capatilist societies is in retreat, the conveyor of puerile entertainment and endless mindless consumption is fading.
An urban agricultural site 15 minutes from downtown LA produces 6,000 lbs of food that includes vegetables, seasonal fruit, honey, chicken and eggs. The family reports earning 20,000 per year after taking 90% of their own needs from their 1/10 acre garden. The possibilities are endless.
Lets stop the endles hand wringing over loss of equity, dollar value, gold prices and the chinese economy. Join the revolution, wake the folk up. Let this industrial consumer monstrosity fade quietly into the night along with its top down hierarchical systems of power and control.
We will wake up a decade from now and say to ourselves, looking back on this time period, what the hell were we thinking and doing. That will be a bright morning and I for one am really looking forward to it.
Hi everyone:
This thread may have run its course but I'd like to say I've learned a great deal from the many commentaries and critiques, thank you.
here's a couple of thoughts:
I think trust will be one of the new "currencies", especially as centralized systems degrade. Is trust a form of knowledge? We "know someone will follow through"…
using wages to distribute the surplus of the economy is no longer an adequate distribution method. We'll need something other than wages and welfare.
maybe the digital fab and communication revolution's basic impact is that it lowers the barriers to those of us who want to live somewhat independently of the centralized cartel-state capitalism that is the current iteration. An alternative economy is arising, on a small scale.
I think the mainstream belief system is akin to 1200 AD in Europe and Japan, where feudalism was the "natural order of things." The idea that there could be some other structure to life did not exist. Change is faster now of course, but the next iteration is not yet entirely visible to us.
I really like essays. It certainly explains why I love Vanity Fair and Atlantic Monthly. And I've been thinking a lot about empathy lately. Some of these buy assignment services are just spectacular.
I not really like Kuhn's use of the concept paradigm shift
But I'm sure he wouldn't see an economic paradigm shift as cultural change, only as a minor direction change WITHIN a major paradigm