LONGECITY

I just picked up "You are not a gadget" by Lanier and its pretty interesting. Any one else read it? He seems to be one of the only non-luddite critics of Transhumanists out there. The thing is he seems to criticize more though is the idea of Singularitarians as being religious and undermining humanism than the plausibility of the idea.

I just picked up "You are not a gadget" by Lanier and its pretty interesting. Any one else read it? He seems to be one of the only non-luddite critics of Transhumanists out there. The thing is he seems to criticize more though is the idea of Singularitarians as being religious and undermining humanism than the plausibility of the idea.

I took a brief look at the book on Amazon.com and searched "singularity" (no hits on singularitarian). On page 41, there is a pitiful attempt to label anyone who is strongly pursuing the reality of a paradigm as a "zombie". He says (not an exact quote) "Daniel C. Dennett, obviously, is a zombie". My take on it is that he is terrified of trancendental culture in which networked individuals are so closely linked that the lines of demarcation between strong individuality of one person and another become blurred due to collaborative thinking. One finds other parts of his writing in which the basis for this seems to be a concern about the nature of future economy, in which he envisions that individual writers will earn their livings by being "paid a little bit for each (digital) bit they create". It's a very funny way of looking at things, since it is almost a superimposition of traditional village economics (the shoemaker's family is paid for making shoes, the blacksmith is paid for making axes, etc.) and cyberculture, where one has to "earn a living by churning out bits for which one is paid".

Granted, this is a "quick look" assessment, but others can follow the link above and "search within" the text, to at least get a feeling of whether or not the book would be worth buying. At least it's available on Kindle and audio download in addition to paperback and hardcover. My assessment of the outlook for cyberculture is far more optimistic and positive than Lanier's, perhaps because (as illustrated by this posting) I can find a quick posting by hotamali, jump into a book and have a look at it, get a quick overview, comment on it, and add a link in the middle of the night. Want to go back to the "good old days" when the public library was closed on Sunday and that was your only resource for information other than the newspaper? Not me!

Boundless Life...

I dont think it should be looked at as a religion but a standpoint. Thanks ill check out the book